Aztec Ruins National Monument

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Stewart L. Udall, Secretary

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Conrad L. Wirth, Director

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HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER THIRTY-SIX

This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the
historical and archeological areas in the National Park System
administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of
the Intetior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office
and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents,
Washington 25, D.C. Price 30 cents

NATIONAL MONUMENT- New Mex,co

by John M. Corbett

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 36

Washington, D.C., 1963

The National Park System, of which Aztec Ruins
National Monument is a unit, is dedicated to conserving
the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United
States for the benefit and enjoyment of its people.

Contents

Page

MAN IN THE SAN JUAN VALLEY 1

Early Hunters and Gatherers 3

The Basketmakers 7

The Pueblos 11

The Aztec Pueblo 18

EXPLORATIONS AND EXCAVATIONS 35

THE AZTEC RUINS TODAY 51

THE NATURAL SCENE 61

ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION 64

RELATED AREAS 66

SUGGESTED READINGS 66

in

Man in the San Juan Valley

The San Juan River and its tributaries drain the region known as
the Four Corners country— the area surrounding the point where
New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona meet in a common
boundary at right angles. Rising high in the Rocky Mountains of
Colorado, the San Juan flows southwestward to dip down into the
northwestern corner of New Mexico; then it courses northwestward
into Utah almost at the point of juncture of the four states. With
many twists and curves, roaring through deep canyons and gulches,
it proceeds generally westward to empty into the mighty Colorado
River in the southeastern part of Utah.

The San Juan Basin is the major drainage basin of the Four
Corners country. As such, its lower reaches formed a formidable
barrier to travel by migrant primitive groups and to early white
settlers as well. Its upper portions, however, especially its tributaries,
were easier of access and supplied that most important element of all
for life in the desert: water— water for drinking, water for irrigation.

The land between the tributaries is highly diversified; much is
arid or semiarid with small streams running intermittently or with
scattered springs that may be dry during parts of the year. Other
areas are mountainous with swift-flowing streams. In places there
are mesas, or large tablelands, which frequently are covered with
forests of pine, juniper, and pinyon. It is a land of warm, often
hot, summers and cool, sometimes very cold, winters; a land of
sharp contrasts; a land that seems perpetual, yet never appears ex-
actly the same on any two successive days.

Into this area many hundreds of years ago, possibly even thousands,
came small bands of wandering hunters. Gradually some of them
learned how to adapt to the rigors of the land. Evenutally two

Frontispiece. A hunting scene of 10,000 years ago.

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centers arose in which the local inhabitants successfully adjusted to
their environment: one along the Chaco Wash in northwestern
New Mexico, and the second in southwestern Colorado in many
places on the La Plata, Mancos, and McElmo drainages. Chaco,
the first of these cultural manifestations, takes its name from the
best known and finest examples of such ruins in Chaco Canyon
National Monument. The other is best known at, and named for,
the area incorporated in Mesa Verde National Park.

On the northern side of the San Juan, most of its tributaries
are perennially flowing streams and rivers, with broad, fertile valleys
and bountiful plant and animal resources nearby. On one of these
streams, the Animas, there existed a series of prehistoric towns
and villages which exemplify the successful blending of cultural
influences from both the major centers of Chaco and Mesa Verde.
This is the general story of the San Juan River area, of the people
who lived there long ago, and in particular the story of the great
ruined pueblo on the Animas River near the present-day town of
Aztec, N. Mex.

early hunters and gatherers. Ten thousand years ago, a small
band of weary, footsore, hungry hunters cautiously approached a few
bison which they had managed to stampede away from the main
herd. Ten in number, the bison had finally paused to drink at a
small spring in a rincon of the canyon wall and to graze upon the
thick, tall grass. For a day and a half, the hunters had carefully
followed the large, hairy mammals, hoping the beasts would lose
their sense of danger and allow themselves to be boxed into a
place where the hunters could approach close enough to kill them.

At last the moment was at hand! Warily, two hunters crawled
along the slope of the canyon wall from opposite sides, seeking
places from which they could throw large rocks upon the animals
or hurl their spears with devastating force. Patiently five more
hunters waited below, concealed by the tall grass or behind con-
venient boulders. When the first two were in place, the leader
gave the signal. Rocks came crashing down on the startled bison;
spears whistled through the air and thudded into soft flesh; one
or two missed, but most found their targets. Shouts and cries
filled the air. The bison, caught by surprise, whirled and milled
around the waterhole for a moment, then several broke for the
open country. One was wounded, the spear in its flank bobbing
like a wave-tossed spindle. On this animal the hunters concen-
trated; three more spears found their target, and the great beast
went down thrashing wildly. Two other animals lay maimed at
the waterhole; one young calf, hobbling painfully, tried to get
away to the open country but was quickly dispatched. The re-
maining six bison disappeared through the thickets and tall grass
to the west.

The animals which were down but not dead were swiftly killed
with spear thrusts through the eyes. Then the assembled hunters
fell to the most important task of all. With quick strokes of their
razor-sharp stone knives, they carefully peeled away the hide from
one of the carcasses. The soft inner parts— the heart, kidneys, and
liver— they immediately cut into pieces and ate raw on the spot,
for they had not tasted meat for many days. In fact, for the last
several days on the hunt, they had subsisted entirely on the few
edible plants and roots they could easily find while tracking the
bison. Now great chunks of meat were cut from the flanks and
likewise consumed raw, until each hunter could eat no more. Then
the men gathered up their weapons— long wooden spears with care-
fully made chipped flint or obsidian points. Some of the points
were so deeply buried in the bodies that they broke loose from the
shafts when the men tried to pry them free. Other shafts had
broken, leaving the points embedded when the bison thrashed
about trying to escape the sudden devastation. This was of minor
concern— new shafts could be made, new points fashioned. It was

Spear point and foreshaft. Length 8".

more important that once again there was meat enough to go
around for the hunters, their mates, and their children.

Now surfeited, the hunters dozed quietly in the shade out of the
noonday sun. But not for long, for they must bring the rest of
the band to participate in the feast. One hunter started back to
the last camp where the women and children waited, existing on
the remnants of the last kill and whatever edible plants, roots,
nuts, and berries they might be able to find nearby. The other
hunters proceeded with the skinning of the animals. To build a
fire, one man found a dry log, in which he made a small hole with
his stone knife. He sharpened another dry but tougher stick.
Thrusting this into the hole, he twirled it rapidly between his
hands until he built up sufficient friction to make a few small
sparks in the log. These he deftly transferred to a little dry tinder,
the flame of which he carefully nursed until twigs and branches
could be added to make a real blaze. The fire would be welcome
in the evening, for the days were getting shorter and the nights
colder. When the women and children arrived, they would make
crude lean-to or windbreak structures to help break the cold night
winds from the north. They would scrape, clean, and dry the bison
skins so that as the band headed southward, they would have the
warm skins to wrap themselves in at night. During the day,
while hunting or working around the camp, they needed little in
the way of clothing — just simple loincloths. On damp, rainy days —
and there seemed too many of these— brush shelters, fires, and the
warm skins of the animals they had killed were sufficient.

By now the vultures were circling overhead, but it would be sev-
eral days before these carrion birds could feast on what little might
remain of the kill. The hunters and the rest of the band would
stay at this spot until all the meat was exhausted, rancid as it might
become. Then once again they would take up their spears and
start after more game. This time they would head toward the
south, for with the shortening days winter was coming, and the
game was going south. But they would worry about the next hunt
later. In the meantime all was well. It was a time for relaxation
and rejoicing— they had food for many days; they had water; soon
they would have shelter; and this was without doubt the best of
all possible worlds in which to live.

Of course, such a scene is imaginary, but it could have taken
place about 10,000 years ago, almost anywhere among the valley
and canyon bottoms of what is now known as the Four Corners
country of the Southwest. The great continental ice sheets never
got this far south, and 10,000 years ago they were already retreat-
ing northward from their farthest expansion. Yet smaller glaciers
in some of the surrounding mountains were also shrinking, and
the general climate of the area must have been far different than
it is today. No doubt it was colder and damper, with more rain and
many swamps, lagoons, and lakes abounding in game animals and
birds of all varieties. With a colder climate, the scenery too did
not resemble that of today. High grasslands, extensive hardwood
forests, and full-flowing streams and rivers characterized the region.
The general land formations, however— the mountains, canyons,
mesas, and plateaus— had been formed long millenia before, and as
short a time as 10,000 years ago they would have been very much
as they are today.

Geologists believe that after the last of the four great continental
glaciations (i.e. the Wisconsin) there were three broad climatic
periods over most of the western United States. These are called
the Anathermal, which was cool and moist, becoming gradually
warmer; the Altithermal, which was exceptionally dry; and the
Medithermal, a relatively cool, moist period which is still in prog-
ress. Our imaginary tale about the hunters, if it had taken place,
would have occurred during the Anathermal period.

These variations in climate have been determined by studying
old stream terraces (streams cut deeper when there is more water,
and they can carry a greater load of abrasive sands and gravels) ; old
beach levels around ancient lakes (such as are prominent today
around the Great Salt Lake in Utah); and ancient annual lake de-
posits of fine silts which form thin bands, or varves. Studies of
animal life, both vertebrate and invertebrate, and plant life are im-
portant, for some life forms can exist only under certain limited
climatic conditions. Bones and shells found in various deposits
may help to indicate the type of climate existing when they were
laid down. Plant fragments, pollen grains, and diatoms (micro-
scopic plants with siliceous skeletons), are clues in telling the story
of prehistoric times.

What the early hunters may have looked like no one really knows,
for archeologists so far have not found a single undisputed trace
of their physical remains. Skeletal fragments of what might be-
early man in this country have turned up in several places, but
usually geologists, archeologists, and others cannot agree as to just
how ancient these remains might be. One of the most likely can-
didates for the distinction of "earliest man" yet found in America
was discovered in 1953 near Midland, Tex. Actually, these remains,

665208 0-63-2 5

which consist of parts of a skull and fragments of other bones,
were those of a female. They were found under geologic condi-
tions that might indicate considerable age and in indirect associa-
tion with types of artifacts which are dated, by other means, as
being of Folsom age or slightly more recent. Unfortunately, since
radiocarbon dates on some of this material vary widely and the
local geology is so complicated, it is not positive that "Midland
Man" is the oldest known American.

Many anthropologists, however, believe that even the earliest in-
habitants of this country were of Asiatic descent and thus might
well have resembled some of the modern American Indians.

We do not even know if they used animal skins as clothing.
With a rather cool, damp climate, it can be assumed they had some
sort of shelter and some types of body covering, even if nothing
more than generous swabbings of bear grease. Today, near the tip
of South America, a tribe of Indians— the Ona— exist in a very
damp, cold climate. Eating mostly fish and sea mammals, they live
in crude brush shelters and wear little if any clothing most of the
time. In Africa certain primitive Pygmy tribes hunt game as large
as giraffes with small bows and arrows. They wound their quarry
first and then follow it, often for days, until they can bring down
the weary animal at close range with their spears.

Perhaps that is how the early hunters in America survived. We
cannot be positive, but we do know that scattered around the Four
Corners country are a few sites where spear points, scrapers, and
other implements have been found under conditions indicating
great antiquity. In other cases throughout the greater Southwest,
points have been found embedded in the remains of slaughtered
animals of now extinct species. Often these remains are found in
ancient swamps and waterholes, where it had been possible to trap
or mire the animals and finally kill them; the mucky swampland
has helped preserve the bones so that today the archeologist can
tell the story of how they were slaughtered.

As the glaciers disappeared and the climate became warmer, the
lakes, swamps, and lagoons gradually dried up, the grasslands be-
came desiccated, the hardwoods disappeared from the valley bot-
toms. Small regional differences in climate, sometimes due to alti-
tude, left some areas more desirable than others. Large mammals
disappeared entirely, and the hunting and gathering people had to
turn to smaller types of game such as elk, deer, rabbit, bear, and
rodents. No doubt wild edible plants, berries, fruits, nuts, and
even roots were gathered and eaten. In the Four Corners country,
however, evidence for occupation by man during the Altithermal
(or second post-glacial period) is almost entirely lacking. This
was an exceptionally dry period, and few if any people could live
there. It wasn't until the climate became wetter and cooler again,

more like it is today, that man once again inhabited the Four Corners
area in any great numbers.

the basketmakers. About the time of Christ, in some parts per-
haps even earlier, small bands of Indians entered the Four Corners
country. It is possible that a few small groups of wandering hunt-
ers and gatherers who had survived the Altithermal were already liv-
ing there, but the archeological evidence for their presence is very
scanty. Under the impetus of new ideas, such as agriculture, these
people may have been slowly settling down to become farmers.

Or possibly under the pressure of expanding populations else-
where, groups seeking new lands suitable for agriculture moved
into the area and either amalgamated with, or drove out, any local
groups. If so, we do not know exactly where these people came
from. Perhaps they came from the south, around the Mogollon
Rim country of New Mexico where there is evidence that even
earlier an agriculturally-based sedentary population had developed.
Corn had been known in parts of the Southwest for a considerable
time. (At Bat Cave in New Mexico, archeologists have uncovered
a primitive type of corn which was grown at least several thou-
sand years before the birth of Christ.)

Only with an assured food supply, part of which can be stored
against bad years, can a group find time to devote its energies to
the arts and to the development of greater skill in crafts. The idea
of agriculture must have spread slowly, for it forced a radical
change in the living habits of those who practiced it, compared to
their old subsistence pattern of hunting and gathering. At first,
the hunting group would regard this new plant as just another seed
crop— to be gathered when it was ripe. They dumped the seed in
the ground and went on about their business; when it ripened they
returned to harvest the crop, much as they went each year to har-
vest the pinyon crop when it was ripe.

But as they became more dependent upon corn and added the
cultivation of squash, these people discovered that two things are
necessary for a group dependent upon agriculture: one, that most
of the group has to remain nearby while the crop is planted, ma-
tured, and harvested (to protect it from rodents, deer, birds, and,
probably, marauding tribes); second, that there must be a secure
storage place for the surplus food and the seeds for next year's crop.
This latter requirement forced them to build storage pits lined with
stone slabs, bark, and adobe which could be securely covered so
that rodents and insects would not eat the surplus harvest.

Archeologists have long called these early inhabitants of the area
"Basketmakers" because of the variety of beautiful baskets and san-
dals which they wove from fibrous plant materials. In the earlier
part of this period, they did not know how to make or use pot-

tery, and baskets were important as storage containers or as vessels
in which to cook by stone boiling. Although their descendants
also made and used baskets, they never achieved the fine quality
and artistry of the early Basketmakers.

Archeologists divide this Basketmaker phase into an early period
of about 400 years and a later period (sometimes referred to as
"Modified Basketmaker") of about 350 years. The Modified Basket-
makers had several important traits which the earlier ones lacked:
namely, the bow and arrow, which replaced the atlatl (throwing
stick); beans, which added important protein to the diet; and a
knowledge of how to make pottery, which permitted much easier
cooking and better storage of perishables.

The necessity for an assured food supply was of increasing im-
portance, for there was a slowly but steadily growing population.
Agriculture provided such a supply and freed a part of the popu-
lation from subsistence activities, giving them leisure to devote to
pursuits which were not necessary for mere existence. For exam-
ple, turquoise— worked and polished into ornamental jewelry-
seems to have been first used at this time. Small crude pottery
figurines are also found, indicating a growing interest in religion and
an increasing awareness of religious ideas. Kivas— developed from
the idea of the older pithouse— first appear in this period. These
provided a place for the performance of religious ceremonies and
other nonsecular functions. The men evidently had the time to
meet in council and debate communal problems. While the family
unit was still important, the clan and even the entire community
took on new important aspects of "togetherness."

We do know what these people looked like, since quite a few-
well-preserved "mummies" have been found buried in dry caves.
They were short, averaging 5 feet 3 or 4 inches for the men and
about 5 feet for the women. Their general build was medium
slender to stocky; their faces moderately long and narrow; skin color
was light to dark brown; and their eyes were brown to black, as
was their hair.

The Basketmakers used clothing of a sort; that is, they may have
worn a loincloth or apron and probably had shoulder robes of un-
favored tanned hide for protection against cold. Woven bands or
loincloths have been found in several sites. Most burials had no
type of clothes but sometimes were wrapped in mantles or dried
skins. Probably clothing was never worn very much. Certain
"aprons" attached to waist cords and made of strings of cedar or
yucca bast were evidently used as menstrual pads. Finely woven
aprons may have been worn by the women on special "dress-up"
occasions, but the scarcity of such items would indicate they were
not for everyday wear.

They wore sandals made of woven yucca strips or cleaned fibers,

or sometimes of very fine cross-woven cord, with fringed toes and
colored ornamentation. Human hair was used in making rope in
considerable quantities; either it was cut off after death and utilized
for this purpose, or was hacked short from time to time during
life. Some burials, especially among the males, indicate rather
fancy hair styles, and it may, therefore, have been the women who
had their hair cropped to supply the material for ropes and belts.

Both men and women wore ornaments— bracelets, necklaces, and
pendants fashioned of stone, bone, or even various dried berries.
Beads were also made of olivella, conus, and abalone shell which
probably were imported from the Pacific Coast by trading with
intervening tribes. Fur blankets were fashioned by wrapping yucca-
fiber strings with long narrow strips of rabbit fur and tying these
fur-covered strings together in close parallel rows.

The Basketmakers were especially known for the fine types of
woven containers they produced. Flexible seamless sacks, beauti-
fully decorated in black, red-brown, and gray are sometimes found.
Large, wide-mouthed ovoid baskets, carried on the back with the
aid of a tumpline across the forehead, were used for bringing home
seeds and other crops. Basket trays and bowls, with both close
coiling and spaced coiling, were often highly ornamented, always
in a symmetrical pattern. Designs usually consist of red figures
outlined with black, alternating with black figures outlined in red.

The women ground corn on metates— flat slabs of rock in which
eventually a deep groove was worn— with manos, or small hand
stones. Stone of various sorts was used in making spear and dart
points (and in the later part of the period, arrow points), knives,
drills, gravers, pipes, and atlatl weights. Animal bone was care-
fully fashioned into awls, fleshers, scrapers, whistles, jewelry, and
even gaming pieces. Wood was used for the atlatl and the dart,
and later for bows and arrows, for digging sticks (for planting
crops), scoops, feather boxes, and hair ornaments.

Basketmaker remains are found throughout the Four Corners
country, the better specimens being recovered from dry caves
where the more perishable materials are preserved. In open sites,
only the stone and bone objects are left, along with the remains of
house structures and storage pits.

In the Animas Valley, north of Durango, Colo., there was quite
a concentration of early Basketmakers. Earl H. Morris, who con-
ducted the first scientific explorations of Aztec Ruins, excavated a
number of these sites in 1938 and 1939. Here, in an open talus
site, he found the first evidence that the early Basketmakers had
actual house structures. He gives a graphic description of a typical
one:

A site for the dwelling was secured by digging a drift into the steep
hillside and piling the excavated earth and stone out in front until a

terrace large enough to accommodate the projected house had been
provided. The floor area was scooped out to shallow saucer shape-
in this case 9 m. in diameter— and coated with mud. At the mar-
gins, the mud curved upward to end against the half-buried foot logs
which were the basal course of the wall. The walls were composed
of horizontal wood and mud masonry. They rose with an inward
slant to a little better than head height, then were cribbed for a dis-
tance to reduce the diameter of the flat portion of the roof, which
was of clay supported by parallel poles. The arc of stones was a re-
taining device placed to hold back the ever-growing accumulation of
refuse that was dumped at the brink of the terrace.

Interior furnishings generally consisted of a heating-pit, slab-lined
storage cists, some with above-floor mud domes, and usually grind-
ing stones and metates. How such a structure was entered is not
known; possibly it was through a smoke hole in the roof, as in
the later and deeper pithouses, or perhaps it was through a lateral
doorway with a high sill, traces of which no longer remain.

By A.D. 700, the Four Corners country was evidently well popu-
lated. In this later part of the Basketmaker period, the houses in
open sites were usually more subterranean. These later houses,
often with slab-lined and adobe-plastered walls, had a smaller sec-
ond room or antechamber added on the front through which
entrance was made. A few such ruined dwelling sites are known
along the Animas River south of Durango. Morris felt that an ade-
quate archeological survey would reveal a great many more, but
extensive plowing of the area in recent historic times has long since
removed the evidence. In the latter part of this period, the early
Basketmakers evidently moved downstream where there was better
land for cultivation and the growing season was slightly longer.

That they had a firm belief in a life in the hereafter is shown
by the care with which they buried their dead and by the offer-
ings placed with them. It is with these burials in dry caves that
most of the perishable material relating to this period has been
found. Frequently the bodies were wrapped in mantles of fur or
feather string, and sometimes wrapped again in the tanned skins of
deer or mountain sheep. Often the bodies have sandals on the
feet (and occasionally an extra pair for replacement if the first wore
out) and are accompanied by hair ornaments, necklaces, beads,
pendants, baskets of corn and pinyon nuts, pipes and smoking ma-
terial, gaming sets, flutes, and implements of warfare and the chase.
The bodies were usually buried in the flexed position, that is, with
the knees drawn up tightly and the hands folded across the chest.
In the earlier part of the period, cave storage pits were used as
burial places. Some bodies were placed in crevices behind fallen
rocks within the cave. Other burials were in the open or in the
talus slopes below the caves. In the latter part of the period, so
much of the cave was used by the living that the dead were fre-

10

quently buried in the open in specially dug pits. In these cases,
evidence of the perishable material has usually disappeared. In a
few of the later graves, pottery is found as a grave offering. Mor-
ris reports one burial of this period that contained 11 pottery vessels.

The Basketmakers must have had warm feelings of affection for
their young. There was a high mortality rate among the infants
and children, but despite this they lavished great care on each
small burial. Children might be buried in baskets or in large skin
bags, but babies were carefully buried in their cradles. These
cradles were made by bending a long slender stick into an oval
shape, on which a framework of rods was tied to the outer oval in
a crisscross pattern. The interior was padded with juniper bark and
covered with fur-cloth blankets, which were often made from the
soft, white stomach skins of rabbits. The cradle could be carried
on the mother's back, hung from a convenient peg in the home
or on a tree branch when out of doors, or laid carefully on the
ground in the shade, all without upsetting the baby. Diapers were
made of soft shredded juniper bark, and juniper bark pads wrapped
in soft skins were tied on the infants to prevent umbilical hernia.

Archeologists have dug up some unusual burials from this period.
One was a male who, presumably after death, had been cut in two
at the waist and then sewed together again. Why this was done,
nobody knows. He was also wearing a pair of leather moccasins,
an item not often found among the Basketmakers. Another burial,
from the Canyon del Muerto in northeastern Arizona, consisted of
only a pair of forearms and hands, lying palms up, side by side
on a bed of grass. Wrapped around the wrists were three neck-
laces with abalone shell pendants. Ironically enough, included in
the grave offerings were two pairs of the finest sandals ever found.
Over the whole lay a large basket about 2 feet in diameter. Con-
jectures as to the "whys" and "whats" of this burial have been
numerous, but probably the true reason will never be known.

the pueblos. The second broad period in the history of the San
Juan area is that in which the Indians built communal dwellings
called pueblos. These were stone and adobe structures, sometimes
multistoried, facing a central plaza which contained one or more
kivas. Very similar structures and village plans can be seen in a
number of the existing pueblos of the Rio Grande today, notably
Taos, Santo Domingo, and San Ildefonso.

Over the previous centuries the inhabitants of the San Juan
Basin, and especially the Animas Valley, had gradually developed
a different way of life from that of the early Basketmakers. Cer-
tainly, they still grew corn, beans, and squash; still hunted and
snared game; still grew old, died, and were buried. But in addi-
tion to having some of the better material things in life such as

11

pottery and the bow and arrow, they now placed a greater
emphasis upon agriculture; hunting and seed gathering were sec-
ondary sources of food. In the spring, the corn seeds were care-
fuliy planted, watched over, watered, and cared for. As the plants
matured, the men and young boys spent more time in the fields.
During the day it was necessary to drive off the squirrels and
birds; at night the green tender plants must be protected from the
deer, rabbits, and nocturnal rodents. Water in this semiarid land
had to be carefully managed, whether flood irrigation or planned
canal irrigation was used. If all these factors were not judiciously
controlled, there would be no crop. The forces of nature seemed
increasingly important; too much sun could be as disastrous as too
much water. Ceremonies were devised to propitiate the spirits
and the gods, who, to the Indians resided in all aspects of nature.
More time was devoted to seasonal religious activities, and great
care was taken to educate the young in the proper performance of
the ceremonies so they, too, might continue to prosper and live in
harmony with nature.

Cotton was probably introduced at about the beginning of the
Pueblo period, along with loom weaving. This allowed the mak-
ing of true cloth, suitable for blankets, poncho-like shirts, sashes,
wrap-around skirts, and other necessary items. One other impor-
tant change at this time affected physical appearance. The soft
cradle of the Basketmakers was replaced by the hard cradleboard of
the Pueblos. Since the infant usually was bound securely upon his
back in the cradle and was unable to roll around, the pressure of
the hard board, instead of the softer cradle, caused the back of its
head to become flattened, thus giving the whole head a much
broader and rounder appearance. This skull flattening in no way
affected the mentality of the child, but it must have been obvious
to the parents what was causing it. Through continued use of the
cradleboard, skull flattening must quickly have become a mark of
distinction and charm and, in a few generations, it must have
become the traditional head shape of the Pueblo Indians.

Dogs and turkeys were still the only domesticated animals, the
turkeys probably kept as much for their feathers (and thus period-
ically plucked) as for their food value. Burials of both dogs and
turkeys occur, indicating they were evidently regarded as more
than mere food. Bones from the refuse piles indicate the people
hunted— or acquired by trade— bear, elk, bison, wolf, mountain
sheep, deer, and rabbits.

There was no sharp break between this period and the preceding
Basketmaker. The Indians themselves did not know when they
left one period and embarked upon the next. Actually, such
"periods" are the classification devices of the archeologists, who
need names to apply to the times at which different cultural and

12

evolutionary changes occur. In retrospect, the archeologist can see
certain important changes which began to take place about A.D. 750.
Liking to classify and categorize the remains they study, archeolo-
gists first divided this broad Pueblo period into five substages
labeled Pueblo I, II, III, IV, and V. Later, the first two substages
were grouped together as the Developmental Pueblo Period, the
third was called the Great Pueblo Period, the fourth became known
as the Regressive Pueblo Period, and the last as the Historic
Pueblo Period. These terms are more meaningful and will be used
hereafter. The last two do not concern us, for at the end of the
Great Pueblo Period, seemingly at the time of the well-known
drought (A.D. 1276-99), most of the pueblo-dwelling peoples left
the San Juan area, never to return.

The most obvious change in the Developmental Pueblo Period,
as compared to the preceding Basketmaker, was a gradual shift in
the type of house construction. The single-unit mud, slab, and jacal
semisubterranean house was giving way to the huge multistoried
stone and adobe structures, which were to predominate in the Great
Pueblo Period 250 years later. In some areas, even earlier than
A.D. 750 a few people began to build single-room houses above-
ground in a contiguous arrangement, often crescent-shaped, forming
small villages. The construction varied from district to district.
Some houses were quadrangular in form and wholly aboveground,
made of adobe and mud with upright, supporting posts; others
were still semisubterranean; some even showed the beginnings of
true stone masonry.

At this time also, a new type of structure was coming into exist-
ence (though a few examples are known from late Basketmaker
times). This new structure, the kiva, was simply a modification
of, and change in, the use of the old pithouse. A kiva is a cere-
monial room and clubhouse for the men, usually constructed under-
ground (or, where aboveground, so clustered in other rooms as to
appear belowground in its relation to the surrounding rooms). It
is circular like the early pithouses, but normally contains a fire-
place, a deflector (to prevent the draft from fanning the fire too
much), and a ventilator shaft by which to bring in the fresh air.
A "sipapu" (a small hole which supposedly leads to the under-
world) was located in the floor on the opposite side of the fire-
place from the deflector. Usually there was a bench around the
inside of the kiva near the floor, which may either have been .used
as a place on which to store religious objects and other parapher-
nalia or may have served the functional purpose of strengthening
the lower part of the kiva wall. Smaller kivas frequently had
pilasters built upon the bench and extending upward a short dis-
tance; these supported the cribbed roof structure. Large kivas had
four centrally located posts which helped support the roof. En-

665208 0-63-3 13

CROSS SECTION OF A TYPICAL KIVA
I.SIPAPU 2. FIREPIT 3. DEFLECTOR 4. AIR SHAFT (VENT ILATOR)
5. PILASTER (ROOF SUPPORT)

14

trance to a kiva was normally gained by means of a ladder through
the central smoke hole in the roof.

It is difficult to assign the same dates to this Developmental
Pueblo Period in all areas of the San Juan Basin. Culturally some
sections seemed to lag behind others; some ideas, concepts, and
artifacts spread and were accepted faster than others. Also, certain
regions have been much better explored archeologically, and we
know more about them.

Unfortunately, the Animas is one of the river valleys in the San
Juan drainage which has not been particularly well surveyed or
investigated archeologically. Accounts by early settlers, and passing
references in some of Morris' reports, indicate that in aboriginal
times (certainly during Pueblo times), the valley was no doubt
heavily populated. It should have been. Good water is readily
available in the river and the climate is healthful; prehistorically,
game must have abounded in the nearby foothills and mountains.
Settlement and clearing of lands in more recent times have elim-
inated many of the prehistoric remains, but the higher banks along
the river terraces still show low mounds of rubble, obviously man
made, with indications of cobble and sandstone walls, which evi-
dently were dwellings of the Pueblo Period.

Best known in this valley area are the cave and open sites that
Morris excavated north of Durango and which contained the
remains of early Basketmaker peoples already mentioned and the
great pueblo of Aztec, near the town of the same name about 15
miles above the confluence of the Animas and San Juan Rivers.
As described elsewhere, this latter structure was also excavated by
Morris in 1916-21. Without doubt, parts of the valley were more
or less continuously occupied from early Basketmaker times until
the final abandonment of the Four Corners country about A.D.
1300. Although we have no firm data on which to base conclu-
sions, it would be safe to assume that the Developmental Pueblo
Period in the Animas Valley lasted from about A.D. 750 or 800 to
1050 or 1100, and that conditions in the living patterns of the people
elsewhere were reflected in the Animas Valley.

As the Developmental Pueblo Period progressed, house arrange-
ments became more complex. The next step seems to have been
an extension of the earlier linear or crescent-shaped alinement of
contiguous houses by adding on one or more wings, so that the
resulting plan was L-shaped or formed a rectangular U. In these
cases, the semisubterranean kiva was still retained in the courtyard
as a definite religious structure. These types of planned commu-
nities are called "unit houses." Most were single storied, though
some may have had a second story added on the back tier of rooms.

Changes in pottery styles, and especially in decoration, are very
marked during this period. Although plain gray ware was still

15

made, pottery with black designs on a white background shows up
in great quantities. In the western part of the San Juan area,
painted pottery with a pinkish-orange background and red designs
makes its first appearance; examples of this type show up as trade
pieces in eastern San Juan sites. The differences between culinary
and nonculinary wares become more marked. The former are
usually corrugated vessels, formed by pinching or indenting the clay
coils while they were still plastic and before the pot was fired.
Later in the period, this type of corrugation became quite decora-
tive in itself and some of the better cooking ware aesthetically
rivals the painted wares.

Corrugated cooking pot. Diameter at mouth, I1V2"; Maximum diameter, I6V3";

Height, 16".

There was a greater variety of vessel forms and painted designs.
For example, designs were no longer confined to the interiors of
the bowls, but were also painted on the exteriors and upon a great
variety of vessel forms. Many of these designs still seem to be
derived from those inherent in basketry, others may have been
taken from textile designs, and still others originated especially for
use on pottery vessels. Principal design elements seem to have
been parallel lines— sometimes straight, sometimes stepped or
wavy— zigzags, triangles, checkerboards, and interlocking frets. In
the latter part of the period, these elements became broader and
heavier and were rendered with greater assurance. A slip or wash
of very fine clay was now smeared on the vessel before firing to
give it a smooth finish.

Burials were generally in refuse heaps, abandoned storage pits
and rooms, or beneath the floors of houses. Infants and small chil-
dren were frequently buried beneath the floors of houses, as though
the parents either desired to keep them around as long as possible,
or believed that the soul of the dead child would return with the
birth of the next one if the body were close by. Grave offerings
consist mainly of pottery, but we may be sure that various perish-
able objects also accompanied the dead; however, conditions for
preservation are so poor in these open sites that most traces of
perishable materials have long since disappeared.

In a few areas there are rather puzzling features about some of
the burials. For example, along the La Plata drainage there are
too few burials to account for the rather large population that
must have lived there. Diligent searching has failed to reveal how
the La Plata people disposed of most of their dead. In other
places skull burials are found— without any bodies— and sometimes
bodies are found without any skulls. Perhaps some of these peo-
ple practiced taking trophy heads of warriors killed in combat or
ambush. Now and then burials are found with an arrow embedded
in the body, or with scrape marks on the skull which indicate that
a person had been scalped, or with the skull smashed in, as though
by a stone ax.

While open-armed warfare, as we know it today, was unfamiliar
to the Pueblo Indians, life may not have always been calm and
peaceful. Raiding or ambush parties, economic strife, the strains
of increasing population, arguments over land and water rights, all
may have contributed to making life uncertain during this period.
And difficulties of a slightly different sort are shown in skeletons
from Alkali Ridge in southwestern Utah, which show marked signs
of malnutrition and diseases.

This was evidently a period of growth, development, transition,
and some struggle. As in other periods, it is difficult to place
sharp lines of demarcation between the Pueblo Period and the ear-

17

lier Basketmaker and between it and the later Great Pueblo Period.
In all of the San Juan Basin, at any given moment, examples
could be found of both old and new trends. Even in adjacent
areas, there was no uniformity of cultural development. But by
the end of this period, in one area or another, all the basic Pueblo
traits were established. All that remained was for certain of these
areas to become specialized along different lines, to become cultural
"centers," diffusing their ideas to neighboring groups, and in turn
absorbing ideas from them. Throughout the San Juan Basin, the
people were physically much alike; their language may well have
been the same, or closely related, and there were probably free
movements of people between towns and even between the more
isolated groups and the larger centers of activity.

It is doubtful if any group was completely isolated. Intermar-
riage must have been common. Whole family and clan groups
may have left one village and joined another, sometimes only a
short distance away, sometimes far away. It would be almost im-
possible to trace such minor shifts in population; large-scale mass
migrations might leave their imprint on the archeological record,
but such evidence does not seem to exist, and it is doubtful if any
mass movements of people occurred at this time.

At the close of this period, what were conditions in the lower
Animas Valley, especially in the immediate vicinity of what is now
the Aztec Ruins? Was there a small, early-type Developmental
Pueblo Village at this particular spot? Or possibly a large "unit
house" type structure? Lack of knowledge about the Animas Val-
ley precludes a definite answer, and early excavations at Aztec
Ruins were largely confined to the main ruins themselves. In
most places the digging did not penetrate to what may have been
the underlying and earlier remains. In a few places beneath the
great ruins, where the excavations went deep enough and where
the later building of the great pueblo had not eradicated them,
there seem to be indications that there were kivas of an earlier
type, and possibly a few scattered aboveground dwellings. An early-
type Developmental Pueblo village may have stood at this same spot.

the AZTEC pueblo. At the beginning of the Great Pueblo Period in
the Animas Valley there may well have been a sizeable population
living in scattered unit house dwellings and small villages, built
largely of river cobbles and adobe mud. The area to the south of
Aztec, in and around Chaco Canyon, and that to the northwest, in
and around Mesa Verde, had each developed local variations in
architectural style, religious concepts, and minor arts and crafts.
Cultural influences from these two areas were to have a marked
effect upon the large pueblo at Aztec that was built, abandoned,
and reoccupied during this period.

18

Chaco-style masonry wall.

The Chaco Wash (today a dry streambed during much of the
year) rises in the high plains north of the Chacra Mesa, extends west-
ward for 68 miles, and then twists sharply to the north to join the
San Juan just above Shiprock, N. Mex. For about 20 miles it
flows westward through a beautiful yellowish-brown sandstone
canyon, the cliffs of which step back in a series of gigantic sand-
stone ledges. In places the canyon bottom is broad and level, but
today it is scarred by a deep arroyo with branches which extend
up each little side canyon, so that travel on foot across or up and
down the canyon is difficult. A thousand years ago this arroyo did
not exist, and the Chaco Wash was a shallow, clear-flowing year-
round stream, meandering through a lush green valley. Where
today the sandstone ledges stand starkly denuded of all trees, there
was once a dense forest of pines and junipers. Along this canyon
bottom and on the mesatops to the north and south, the prehis-
toric Chacoans erected some of the finest sandstone masonry
pueblos in North America. A number of other large Chaco-like
sites were built in places outside the canyon proper, and the in-
fluence of this building style was felt for 50 miles around.

To the northwest of Aztec, between the La Plata Mountains and
the Sleeping Ute, in and around the area dominated by the large

19

Mesa Verde -style masonry wall.

tableland of Mesa Verde, a second regional culture center developed.
These Indians lived along the main watercourses of the area— the
McElmo and Montezuma— or dry-farmed the surrounding mesas.
It was toward the end of this period that the Indians living in the
Mesa Verde itself built their large imposing cliff dwellings.

By the end of the preceding Developmental Pueblo Period the
communities in the San Juan area began to be more centralized
and to be built according to preconceived plans. Such planning
denotes a form of community control, or at least some kind of
control over a fair-sized labor force. Today, community projects
are frequently carried out in the pueblos by the majority of the
people under the direction of their caciques, or leaders, after care-
ful discussions and proper religious observances by the elders of the
group. A similar form of self-government must have existed in
the prehistoric pueblos. It was probably based on a time-honored
tradition given sanction by religious beliefs which extended back
as far as the late Basketmaker period where there were beginnings
of large community kivas and centralized religious group activities.

With large groups of people living together, greater cooperation
was mandatory, and through such cooperation the necessary tasks

20

were accomplished more quickly. Thus there was greater leisure
for many people which could be devoted to the more interesting
arts and crafts. Sometimes societies limit this greater freedom and
leisure to a ruling class, but such does not seem to have been the
case among the Pueblos. There are some indications, however,
that especially in this period there may have been developing the
concept of a priestly hierarchy that also exercised civil controls.

The Great Pueblo Period was a period of continued specializa-
tion, not only in architecture but also in ceramics and in the minor
arts and crafts. North of the San Juan, most of the pottery seems
to have been decorated with a carbon paint, that is, a paint made
from vegetal dye. South of the San Juan, in the Chaco area, they
generally seem to have used mineral paints. The pottery designs
of this period were often hachured patterns, with the thin filling
lines surrounded by heavier boundary lines. Band designs of steps,
frets, and triangles were also used. Bowls, pitchers, ollas, and ladles
were the common shapes; and some cylindrical vessels and effigy
pots are known.

An equally popular ware, which was not painted, was the cook-
ing, or "corrugated." ware mentioned earlier. In this period the
coils of the vessel wall were still sometimes pressed together to
form decorative designs, or sometimes were smoothed over so that
an almost-plain vessel resulted.

In the field of minor arts and ornaments, the people of this period
reached a high degree of achievement. Olivella shell beads were

Chaco-style pottery pitcher. Diameter at
mouth, 2V2"; Maximum diameter, 4";
Height, 61//.

21

665208 0-63-4

Chaco-style pottery bowl.
Maximum diameter, 9";
Height, 4V4"'

still widely used as well as stone beads and stone and shell pend-
ants carved in the forms of birds and animals. Turquoise, which
first seems to have been used in late Basketmaker times, was used
extensively for some of the finest ornaments, not only for beads
and pendants but also in beautiful mosaics.

However, it is the large multistoried pueblos of the Chaco Can-
yon and the great cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde that attract the
most attention. The native sandstone at Chaco Canyon made an
excellent building material— it was easily obtainable, it fractured
along natural cleavage planes into thin slabs, and it could be ground
and pecked into large rectangular blocks. Both the availability of
sandstone and the relative ease with which it could be worked were
important factors in developing the Chaco style of architecture.

Some of these pueblos may have been as high as five stories;
most were at least three or four stories. All show signs of constant
alteration in individual rooms and in their general layout, as though
some feverish urge was forcing the people to keep shifting the ar-
rangement of their dwellings. Not all the rooms in any of the
large pueblos were occupied simultaneously; usually the rooms to-
ward the rear were used for storage or, in many cases, as dumps
for refuse and garbage. Occasionally, burials are found in them.

All the great Chaco pueblos form self-contained units— that is,
they were built around central plazas or courtyards, as in the case
of Pueblo Bonito, with a low row of single-storied rooms closing
off the formerly open side of the plaza, or they were roughly rec-
tangular with closely knit contiguous rooms and internal kivas as
in Yellow House. This closure, plus the fact that the doors and
windows which formerly had opened outward at the rear or sides
are now sealed up, has led many people to believe the later parts
of this period were marked by trouble and strife and that this self-
containment was a defensive measure.

22

At Chaco Canyon, many parts of the pueblo walls were finely
made. Different styles of decoration were produced by using sand-
stone blocks of various sizes. An unusual effect was achieved by
alternating bands of large rectangular blocks with a series of bands
of much smaller, finely laminated standstone blocks. The interior
of the walls consisted of crude rubble in adobe mud, and, where
some form of banding technique was not used in the outer or
veneer wall, the chinks between the larger stones were filled with
adobe mud and spalls or very small chink stones. When carefully
done, this technique also produced an attractive appearance. Since
both the interiors and exteriors of walls were usually plastered with
numerous thin layers of adobe, it is something of a mystery why
the Indians took the trouble to produce such pleasing effects in
their stone work and then to cover it up with plain plaster. It
may be that what we regard as decoratively charming was to them
simply a structural and engineering feature. They may have con-
sidered carefully spalled and banded masonry to be structurally
sounder than simple rock, rubble, and plaster walls. Usually the
walls of the upper stories are successively thinner, and a similar
idea was used in the beams which form the room ceilings (and
thus the floors of rooms above) —the heaviest beams were in the
lower rooms, and those in the upper stories were correspondingly
lighter and smaller.

In the Chaco-type great pueblo of this period, the majority of
the rooms were large by pueblo standards. They were rectangular
in shape (except for the kivas, which are circular) and often 8 to
more than 12 feet long and 6 to 8 feet wide. Ceilings were 8 or
10 feet high, and doorways, usually with a raised sill, were 3 to 4
feet high and 2 to 3 feet wide. In comparison with the typical
rooms in the Mesa Verde area, those in Chaco were very spacious.

In the Mesa Verde region the people were also learning to build
in sandstone, but the available standstone was coarser than that in
Chaco and did not have the clean fracture planes, and the masonry
was of a thicker and seemingly cruder sort. Walls were made of
rectangular blocks of tan sandstone which quite often were care-
fully shaped and ground to give a pleasing effect.

On the sloping green tabletop mountain, known as the Mesa
Verde (from which the surrounding area gets its name), in the
early part of this period (A.D. 1050-1200), the people built large
unit-type pueblos upon the long finger-like mesatops which extend
southward from an abruptly rising escarpment on the north. Most
of these units were multistoried, and although they centered around
a central plaza, they were much smaller, more tightly contained
units than their Chaco Canyon counterparts of the same period.
Frequently they contained at least one towerlike structure connected
by an underground passage to a nearby kiva. One or more other

23

kivas might be located in, or front on, the small central plaza.

Although the rooms are smaller than the ones in the great com-
munal houses of Chaco, they are solidly built of double course
standstone blocks. Because in most cases the mesas are sloping
southward, many of these unit houses were built upon one or
more terraced flats. Frequently the only entrance into the pueblo
was by staired entranceway leading from the south into the small
interior court or plaza.

At Mesa Verde, in the latter part of this period (about A.D. 1200-
1225), the people who had been living on the mesatops in the unit
house type of dwelling seem suddenly to have abandoned these
dwellings and taken up residence in the nearby caves. Here they
built great pueblo-type structures, often of several hundred rooms
with numerous associated kivas. Since they were limited by the
ceiling of the caves to two and three-story structures, and not so
exposed to the elements, it was not necessary to use such thick,
strong walls, roofs, and ceilings. The general construction at Mesa
Verde was therefore thinner than at Chaco, and the rooms and
doorways are considerably smaller. In fact, with the warm southern
exposure of the caves which were used, the people must have done
most of their living and daily chores outside, in the small plaza
areas and on the roofs of the lower tiers of rooms. The rooms them-
selves could be small, for they were probably used only for sleep-
ing and storage. Because the native sandstone at Mesa Verde is
coarser grained and does not fracture as easily into blocks and spalls,
the style of alternating large and small banded masonry found at
Chaco was not adopted there. But much of the stonework at Mesa
Verde is nonetheless excellent; perhaps some builders had greater
artistry than others, for some of the rooms, especially the circular
towers, contain blocks which have been carefully pecked, ground,
polished, and fitted into exact position with loving care.

In this period, also, a structure known as a Great Kiva comes
into prominence. It usually has an entrance on the north side (in-
stead of through the smoke hole), often with a stairway. It has a
large raised firebox in the center of the south side, and occasionally
another entrance there. In addition, on the east and west sides of
the floor are large, rectangular stone-lined pits, built up above the
floor. Their exact use is still a mystery, and perhaps they served
more than one purpose. It has been suggested that when covered
with boards, they would make excellent foot drums for the dances,
or good places for the medicine men to conceal themselves while
performing certain magical rites during initiation ceremonies. Finally,
four large posts set into the floor of the kiva supported the roof.
Great Kivas are fairly common in the Chaco area, but in the Mesa
Verde vicinity they seem to be very rare.

In each of the two areas mentioned above— Chaco Canyon and

24

Mesa Verde— archeological work has revealed a continuous occupa-
tion of the sites and the immediate vicinity. At the great Aztec
ruin, however, there is still some doubt as to what really happened.
In two different time periods there seem to be strong architectural
relations to both the Chaco and Mesa Verde centers, as well as
close ties in ceramics and other items of material culture. Part of
the intriguing mystery at Aztec is whether these similarities repre-
sent actual migrations from those centers on a fairly large scale, or
an exchange of ideas, or small groups of migrants who strongly in-
fluenced the local population.

In the midst of the populous Animas Valley, along the edge of
an old river terrace, early in the 1100's a large multistoried stone
pueblo was built in an architectural style reminiscent of that in
Chaco Canyon. Did a large migrant group from the Chaco area—
or some other area where Chaco-like people were living— move into
the Animas Valley and erect this structure? Or did some of the
local citizenry decide to join in a community effort and copy the
building techniques of their neighbors to the south? If so, what
was the impetus which launched the local people upon this am-
bitious project? Perhaps a small group of highly skilled techni-
cians, under the leadership of a few "priests" or medicine men,
came from the Chaco area into the Animas Valley. Once estab-
lished there, by persuasion, teachings, or by religious magic and
psychological control, they may have prevailed upon some of the
local population to join them and to build their homes and kivas
of sandstone blocks, in the traditional Chaco style.

We may never know the exact answer to these questions, but
wherever the people came from, whoever they may have been, what-
ever the guiding impetus, Aztec pueblo, like Rome, was not built
in a day. Dates from tree rings— as described later— indicate
that the pueblo was built between A.D. 1110-1124, with the major
construction periods in 1111 and 1115. Probably a small group, or
just a clan, moved into the site about 1110, and finding it suitable
for habitation erected the first small part of the pueblo. The next
year a much larger group, perhaps several clans or more, joined the
earlier settlers and more than 50 percent of the pueblo was finished.
Then, in 1114 or 1115, a third wave of migrants arrived and es-
sentially completed the pueblo, except for the one-story row of
rooms which closed off the south side. It is possible that some of
the indigenous Animas population joined these newcomers and moved
in with them. From 1115 until about 1124 or 1125, occasional rooms
were added as new quarters were necessary for newly married couples
and as old rooms were used as refuse dumps.

To the northwest of the ruins, less than 2 miles away, the Indians
found an outcropping of sandstone which could be broken into shape
and then ground into rectangular blocks. These were hauled to the

25

proposed building site, where the women took over the construc-
tion. Holes were dug in the clay soil nearby, water poured into
them, and then stirred to produce a thick adobe mud. This was
used, along with crude unshaped sandstone blocks, as filler for the
walls. On the outside, the women laid up the well-shaped blocks
in regular courses, chinking them with small spalls or potsherds.

The rooms were laid out in rows adjoining one another; as one
row was finished, another was added alongside of it. When several
rows had been completed, second and possibly even third stories
were added. The first group to arrive probably completed the major
part of one wing; later groups added to this and erected the other
wings and associated kivas until the entire pueblo had the tradi-
tional planned aspect of a typical plaza-enclosed Chaco pueblo. In
the central plaza area several kivas were dug and roofed over at
ground level. The fourth side consisted of a single row of one-
storied rooms. Finally, even a fourth story may have been added
in places. Sometimes a large square space was temporarily left open,
later to be filled by a circular kiva.

Out in the plaza, during the latter part of this first occupation,
work started on the Great Kiva, for this was the center of the
ceremonial life of the entire pueblo. Here would be performed
the ceremonies which would insure the inhabitants that theirs would
be a long and happy life and that everything would prosper for
the new community.

For roofing the rooms, main stringers of pine or juniper were
used, and over these were laid splits of juniper or long poles of
Cottonwood. Next came a layer of rush or reed mattings and then
a layer of dirt and adobe which formed the top of the roof, or
the floor of the room above if there was more than one story.

The pine logs used for the main stringers are good-sized, many
being 1 foot to \lh feet in diameter and up to 10 or 12 feet long.
Although juniper is still fairly abundant in the nearby country,
good stands of pine today are many miles away. At the time the
first parts of this pueblo were constructed, the pine forest may have
been much closer. Perhaps extensive cutting hastened soil erosion
and thus caused the forest growth to retreat.

Prehistorically it still was a long haul to bring in such big logs.
Many people have assumed that the logs were floated down the
Animas River. This would have been the easy way of doing it,
but the logs found in situ in the ruins were obviously fresh cut,
peeled while green, and show no scars. They must therefore have
been carried overland from their source, no matter how far away,
for it would have been impossible to float them downstream with-
out being scarred and bruised in transit.

Through the growth of tree rings on pine logs, it is possible to
date the time at which they were cut. If a tree is cut today, the

26

outermost ring constitutes its growth for the year in which it is
cut. Counting toward the center of the tree ring by ring, you will
arrive at the date at which the tree was a young sapling. Climatic
factors, dry and wet spells, are reflected in the width of the rings.
Dry years usually show small, odd-shaped or stunted rings; normal
years show regular well-shaped rings, and extremely wet years may
result in excessively large rings. These various rings, which are
arranged into patterns, can be matched with similar tree-ring pat-
terns from still older trees, and a chart of patterns can be prepared
which will extend as far back in time as you can find specimens
with overlapping patterns. Against this master chart the ring pat-
tern of any particular tree can be compared and the specimen dated.
Today archeologists have such a tree-ring master chart which ex-
tends back to the time of Christ for the San Juan area.

At Aztec, samples of tree rings were secured from some of the
beams that still existed at the time this dating process was dis-
covered. Such samples fall into two groups of dates. One group
(with numerous samples) was placed between A.D. 1110 and 1124;
the second group (with only six samples) between 1225 and 1252.
The tree-ring dates indicate that the great pueblo at Aztec had un-
dergone at least two major periods of construction. Since a large
number of dates range from 1111 and 1115, this would appear to
have been the first peak of building activity.

It is possible that earlier samples have rotted away or have been
destroyed by later Indians or by the early white settlers. Moreover,
all building activity probably did not suddenly cease in A.D. 1124;
it may well have continued for another 10 years, but the beams
representative of this later period have since been destroyed. We
can safely say that the first construction period at Aztec pueblo oc-
curred sometime between 1110 and 1130, with most of the develop-
ment occurring around 1111 and 1115. Likewise, a second major
construction period at Aztec occurred sometime between 1220 and
1260, with major development in the 25-year span between 1225
and 1250.

The two construction periods at Aztec, as indicated by the tree-
ring dates, are corroborated nicely by other evidence found by Mor-
ris that Aztec actually was built by one group of people, abandoned,
and then reoccupied at a later date by a slightly different group of
people. Throughout all the rooms he dug, he found sterile layers
of windblown sand and ruined debris from falling walls and ceil-
ings. In this debris and under the sand he found Chaco-like pot-
tery and artifacts. In addition there were surprisingly few burials.
The last point might seem strange, except for the fact that even
today, 40 years after Morris' work and despite endless searching,
archeologists have located few Chaco-type burials in Chaco Canyon
itself. Whatever the burial customs of the Chaco people may have

27

been, they have eluded archeologists for many years. The absence
of burials of this period at Aztec is a clue that probably a group
of Chaco-like people, bearing the distinctive Chaco culture, may
actually have moved into the Aztec area.

Morris wrote that he found many rooms built in typical Chaco-
style architecture. Granting that the local sandstone was not quite
as easily worked as that at Chaco, the large-size rooms, the high
ceilings, the banded-veneer masonry walls, the large doorways, and
other techniques used were very similar to the architectural tech-
niques of the Chaco area.

Overlying the Chaco debris and sterile sand layers, Morris found
pottery, household utensils, and burials characteristic of the classic
Mesa Verde Period— a period which occurred later than the great
Chaco Period. In addition, there were obvious architectural signs
of rebuilding and remodeling within the pueblo. Large Chaco-type
rooms had been made smaller by wattle-and-daub partition walls,
while doorways had been shortened and narrowed more like the
ones at Mesa Verde.

Thus there were two definite periods of occupation at Aztec, one
by a Chaco-like people and one by a Mesa Verde-type people. The
two major construction periods, as indicated by the tree rings, agree
with Morris' evidence of two occupation periods and, so far as we
know, closely date those periods during which the pueblo was
actively inhabited.

Aztec, at the height of the Chacoan occupation, must have been
a fascinating sight. On a sunny summer day, the plaza and roof-
tops would have been a busy swarm of activity— mothers nursing
and tending their young, grinding corn for tortillas, preparing meat
for the stew pot, making baskets, and molding clay pots for later
firing. Old men basked in the sun or instructed the young boys.
Most of the men and older boys were busy tending the corn, beans,
and squash in the fertile fields surrounding the pueblo. This was
exacting work, since each plot, clan by clan, had to receive its care-
fully husbanded share of water from the irrigation ditch that ran
along the slope of the high terrace just to the north of the pueblo.
At times during the day, hunters would straggle in happily if bur-
dened with game, sadly and slowly if empty-handed after a fruitless
chase. Occasionally a wandering group of strangers would pass
by with items to trade. They were made welcome and fed, and
the whole plaza took on a festive air.

At night the pueblo must have presented a vastly different ap-
pearance: dark, mysterious, and quiet. Here and there a small dying
fire cast a flickering glow upon a brown adobe wall. In one or
two of the kivas, a faint light through the hatchway in the roof
indicated preparations under way for a ceremony, or perhaps a special
highly secret meeting of one of the clan societies. If you looked

28

closely you might make out one of the sentinels, silhouetted briefly
against the night sky as he shifted position. But the pueblo was
silent— a silence only broken by an occasional dog's bark or baby's
wail— until, shortly after the morning star appeared, the hunters crept
quietly out of the pueblo, and as the star faded, the broadening
morning light heralded the approach of another day in the life of
Aztec pueblo.

But something happened. For no reason we can ascertain today,
the pueblo was abandoned by its first occupants. Presumably, this
was a fairly fast exodus, but one in which the people had time to
take most of their treasured possessions with them. There is no
evidence that they were driven away by invaders, or by any other
major catastrophe such as fire, flood, or pestilence. We do not
know if they left en masse or perhaps more gradually, as they ar-
rived, in clans and groups. If a few hardy souls stayed behind, or
if a few weak stragglers couldn't make the trip, there is no evi-
dence. All we know is that by about A.D. 1125, or perhaps 1130,
the pueblo was empty. For almost a hundred years the great struc-
ture stood alone, untended and uninhabited. Perhaps the local peo-
ple occasionally used a loosening beam from the structure, or
gathered up a few blocks from the slowly crumbling walls, or helped
themselves to any readily useful articles left behind, but otherwise
they and any passing wanderers seem to have left the place alone.

For years the wind blew the sand into the open doorways, through
the widening cracks in the walls, past the sealed doorways, down
through the floors, until even the deepest and most inaccessible
rooms had a layer of 4, 6, or 8 inches of fine sand deposited over
them and whatever secrets they held. Rats and other rodents in-
fested the place and little disturbed the brooding silence except for
their piping squeals. Occasionally weakened beams gave way or
a wall here and there crashed down as its plaster and rubble fill
were washed out by- rains and melting snows. Bit by bit the old
pueblo slowly crumbled.

Why and how the first great pueblo was built by a Chaco-like
people and then suddenly and for no apparent reason abandoned is
a real mystery. Strangely, this abandonment seems to agree roughly
with the time at which the Chaco area itself was being depopulated.
In Chaco Canyon, an arroyo, much like the one which exists today,
was cutting its way backward up the canyon, and this arroyo-cut-
ting would have made it impossible for many of the inhabitants to
continue to flood-irrigate their fields. It may have been the basic
factor involved in the general abandonment of the great communal
dwellings of the Chaco Canyon around A.D. 1150, no doubt coupled
with a certain amount of strife and considerable periods of drought.

But this would not have been true at Aztec. The Animas River is
a perennial stream, and there is no apparent cause for the abandon-

29

665208 0-63-5

ment of the pueblo by the Chaco-like people, unless for some rea-
son they decided to leave Aztec because the last of their kinfolk in
Chaco were leaving that area.

In fact, it could better be proposed that some of the first groups,
which had to leave Chaco Canyon about 1100 because of the in-
cipient arroyo and its accompanying loss of irrigation water and
generally lowering water table, might actually have moved to the
Animas and established Aztec. Perhaps a rather coincidental event
may have occurred at Aztec which caused its abandonment just as
Chaco Canyon was almost depopulated. The early settlers in the
Animas recall evidence of a prehistoric canal flowing along the lower
slopes of the terrace to the north of Aztec Ruins, somewhat lower
than the modern one. This canal took off on the right bank of
the river, several miles upstream from the pueblo. A major shift-
ing of the river, a swing of the main stream against this old river
terrace on the right bank, would have effectively cut the canal at a
point below which the people could not take off water to irrigate
their fields and in a manner they could not repair. Such a disaster
would have forced them to move to other cultivable fields; if none
were available nearby (and they may have all been taken up by
other local groups), they would have had to go far away. They
couldn't return to Chaco Canyon or other areas near there, for these

A pottery "kiva" jar. Mesa Verde style. Diameter at mouth, 4Vi" i Maximum
diameter, 13Y3"; Height, 9V2" '■

30

places too were being depopulated. So perhaps they followed some
of their Chaco kinfolk who were intermittently migrating in groups
to the Rio Grande, or to the Hopi country. In these new areas,
mixing with the local population, they lost their distinct cultural
identity. We can look at the modern Pueblo Indians of today and
wonder if perhaps some of their long ago ancestors may not have
actually lived at Aztec or in Chaco Canyon.

But there is a double mystery at Aztec: as indicated earlier, over-
lying the evidences of a Chaco-phase occupation, Morris found evi-
dence of rebuilding and rehabitation of many rooms. Large-sized
Chaco rooms had been shortened, reduced, or cut off by interior
walls and lowered ceilings. Older doorways had been blocked up,
or had been partially filled and reduced in size. In some cases
entire small rooms, complete with ceilings, had been built within
larger rooms. New floors had been laid down upon the debris and
windblown sand which partially filled some of the older rooms.
Older beams had been pulled out of rooms and reused elsewhere,
or new walls in a different style had been built in place of those
that had collapsed.

A newer style of pottery, reminiscent of the Mesa Verde-type
pottery, was prevalent. The majority of burials found within the
ruins, 149 out of a total of 186, seemed to belong to a different
period as shown by the type of artifacts associated with them.
T-shaped doorways, an architectural trait characteristic of Mesa
Verde times, was prevalent in the later parts of the pueblo. Key-
hole-shaped kivas, another Mesa Verde trait, were inserted into and
between rooms of the earlier period. And finally, the Great Kiva
in the central plaza, which had fallen into disuse, was rehabilitated—
in a much poorer style of construction, surely, but nonetheless
obviously repaired and temporarily put back into use.

These factors inclined Morris to feel that some time after A.D.
1124 the pueblo at Aztec was abandoned by the Chacoan builders.
Then about 1225, a new group arrived, bringing with them the gen-
eral styles and culture of the area we know as Mesa Verde.

As with the earlier occupation at Aztec, we do not know exactly
who these second people were or exactly where they came from,
although it is obvious that they had a close affiliation with the
people of the Mesa Verde area. Nor do we know if they were a
large group, representing a mass migration, or whether once again
some of the local population may have decided to attempt building
a large community. Perhaps for a second time a few people, pos-
sessing special abilities or representing a religious organization, pre-
vailed upon either the local population of the Animas Valley or
wandering migrant groups to assist them in erecting large com-
munity structures.

We do know that at about this time there was a considerable

31

Cobblestone walls at Aztec Ruins.

population shift all over the Mesa Verde area. The people were
dispersing from their normal habitats and moving into more pro-
tected locations or consolidating into larger, more defensible units.
In the Mesa Verde itself, for example, they were abandoning their
mesatop pueblos and crowding together in the caves or moving
out of the area entirely. In the Hovenweep area, they retreated to
the heads of the canyons and built watchtowers along the canyon
sides and bottoms to protect their dwindling water supplies. It
was evidently a period of considerable strife and turmoil. There
were short periods of recurrent drought, and possibly many of these
groups had begun to fight among themselves over land and water
rights and other necessities of life.

The second occupation at Aztec was more intensive and one in
which parts of the local population participated actively. The con-
struction style of this period shows a considerable use of local cob-
blestones set in adobe mortar, as in many of the small ruins
throughout the Animas. Sometimes cobblestone walls are overlaid
or underlaid by, or even intermingled with, sandstone walls. It

32

was at this time also, as far as we know, that the other pueblo
units— now all ruins— within the monument boundary were con-
structed, as well as several other major Mesa Verde-phase structures
elsewhere in the Animas Valley.

In addition, large quantities of new material had to be secured
fairly rapidly to keep pace with the feverish building activities at
Aztec. While some of the rooms of the large Chaco-style pueblo
were rehabilitated by these new inhabitants, others were dismantled
and their materials, in addition to those from fallen walls, were
used elsewhere. But even this great pueblo could not supply all
the stone needed. So from the old quarry to the site of the pueblo
two paths were built, side by side, each wide enough for eight
men to walk abreast. For many months, men with stone mauls
and hammers cracked and chopped and ground the sandstone into
building blocks. Other men and the stronger boys toiled all day
in straggling lines, carrying the blocks on large wooden litters or
in great slings strung on poles. Long lines of workers streamed
down one path, loaded with blocks, to return over the other path
with their empty litters and slings.

Although the Great Kiva was repaired, with rather sloppy work-
manship in many places, it was probably only used for a brief
period. The focal point of the community's religious life seems
to have centered around the peculiar and somewhat puzzling tri-
wall structures, two of which exist at Aztec. One is the excavated
Hubbard Mound site just to the northwest of the main ruin; the
other is Mound F, which is also to the northwest of the other
major but largely unexcavated ruin— the East Ruin. If there was
such a thing at this time as the beginning of a priestly hierarchy
among the Pueblo peoples, these tri-wall structures with their cen-
tralized kivas may have been the domiciles and religious quarters
of this hierarchy.

Once again life seemed to flourish at Aztec. This time, with all
the extra pueblo units close to each other, the area must have re-
sembled a veritable beehive. It would have taken an extensive
farming area to support the population. If a shift in the river had
cut the Chacoans' canal, another shift back again may have made it
possible to restore the old canal, improve it, and once again make
the surrounding fields green in summer with growing corn, beans,
squash, and cotton.

In contrast to the Chacoan occupation, Morris found a large num-
ber of burials (149) from this period, mostly in the rooms. Many
were buried with great care and had numerous and varied grave of-
ferings. For a while, evidently, the Pueblos prospered and traded
far and wide for luxury items. But once again bad times set in,
possibly accompanied by almost constant armed harassment by less
fortunate groups. Although Morris did not find any direct evi-

33

An Aztec Ruins burial with pottery mug in situ.

dence that the people at Aztec were actually killed off or driven
out by armed conflict, the later burials were all hastily made and
usually unaccompanied by grave offerings. In addition, almost the
entire east wing had been destroyed by fire. This could have been
accidental and such a disaster might have proven the final straw
for an already beleaguered group; or they may have fired the pueblo
before leaving, or some marauding group might have been responsible.

Exactly why, after 25 or 30 years, the second group also abandoned
the site we may never know. Times were hard in the Four Corners
country, and by 1300 this area seems to have been virtually depop-
ulated. Perhaps the abandonment of Aztec, sometime after 1252,
was simply a local manifestation of this much larger dispersal.

No doubt the great drought of the last quarter of that century
contributed substantially to this general abandonment, but there
must have been other factors at work as well. The Indians regard
the forces of nature in a different manner than we do. They may
have been struggling through long years, not only with nature but
among themselves. They may have felt that their gods were against
them, that somehow they had offended them, and that nothing

34

they could do in that country would be right again. It may have
seemed easier to them, family by family, group by group, and per-
haps pueblo by pueblo, to give up the struggle and go elsewhere,
to start over in new surroundings where the gods might smile upon
them once again.

Explorations and Excavations

Despite popular opinion, and despite the name applied to the ruins,
the Indians who built this ancient pueblo were not related to the war-
like Aztecs of Mexico. In the late 1800's, there was considerable
interest in the seemingly mysterious Aztec, Toltecs, and other In-
dians of Mexico. The writings of Stephens, Prescott and others
had fired imaginations, and new communities— particularly those in
the vicinity of Indian ruins— were often given names of Indian groups
from south of the border.

So it was with the town of Aztec. When white settlers first
moved into the Animas Valley, they were intrigued by the great
stone ruins. Believing them to be the work of a long-vanished
race from the south, they named their town Aztec.

The ruins, in turn, became known as "those ruins at Aztec" or
simply as "the Aztec ruins," and so the name remains today. We
know now that the Aztecs of Mexico, whom Cortez conquered,
had nothing to do with these ruins. In fact, they were built and
abandoned several centuries before Cortez, and even before the Aztecs
themselves were well established in the Valley of Mexico.

The earliest reference to ruins along the Animas River in the
vicinity of Aztec is found on the map of Escalante's Expedition in
1776-77. On that map, the cartographer, Miera y Pacheco, has
written in between the lines representing the Animas and Florida
Rivers the following:

The branches of these two rivers are capable of being inhabited by
very large populations as is shown by the ruins of very ancient towns.

It is doubtful that Escalante or any of his party actually saw the
Aztec ruins themselves, since the map would indicate that they were
well north of that particular spot, probably somewhere in the vicinity
of the present-day Durango. Further, the Escalante map shows the
Rio Florida as flowing directly into the San Juan where actually
it flows into the Animas. Likewise, it shows what are now known
as the La Plata and Mancos Rivers as flowing into the Animas,
whereas they flow directly into the San Juan. If any of the Escalante
party had followed these streams or the Animas to their junction
with the San Juan, these mistakes would not have been made on
the map, so the party must, therefore, have been well north of
what is now Aztec.

35

Possibly other earlier explorers may have passed near, or by, the
Aztec ruins, but the next recorded visit occurred on August 4, 1859,
when Dr. John Strong Newberry visited the site. Newberry, like
many of the 19th-century men of science, was a man of many talents.
He graduated from Western Reserve University in 1846, then ob-
tained a degree in medicine, and later studied geology in Paris. At
one time or another he was associated with the Smithsonian In-
stitution and also taught geology at Columbian (now George
Washington) University. In 1859, he accompanied Capt. T. N.
Macomb (a topographical engineer) on an exploring trip from Santa
Fe to the junction of the Grand (now upper reaches of the Colo-
rado River) and Green Rivers where they formed the Colorado River.
The following paragraph about the Aztec ruins is taken from his
account of this trip:

The principal structures are large pueblos handsomely built of stone,
and in a pretty good state of preservation. The external walls are
composed of yellow Cretaceous sandstone, dressed to a common
smooth surface without hammer-marks; in some places they are still
25 feet in height. As usual in buildings of this kind, the walls were
unbroken by door or window to a height of 15 feet above the founda-
tion. The interior shows a great number of small rooms, many of which
are in a perfect state of preservation, and handsomely plastered.
These structures are surrounded by mounds and fragments of masonry,
marking the sites of great numbers of subordinate buildings; the whole
affording conclusive evidence that a large population once had its
home here.

Aztec Ruins in 1895.

HUBBARD SITE
TRI-WALL STRUCTURE

MOUND F
UNEXCAVATED RUINS

SCALE IN FEET

AZTEC RUINS ~ GROUND PLAN

37

White settlement of the valley around the ruins area began in 1876,
and from that time on the ruins have been well known.

The first scientific investigations of the ruins were made in 1878.
when Lewis H. Morgan visited the site and later published a de-
scription with a good ground plan. Morgan, sometimes known as
"the father of American anthropology," was one of the most dis-
tinguished scientists of the 19th century. He is well known for
his ethnological studies of the Iroquois Indians in New York.
Though usually thought of as a "social anthropologist," Morgan
had a great and abiding interest in archeology, particularly that of
the southwestern part of what is now the United States, Mexico,
and Central America. On his trip to the Southwest in 1878, he
kept a journal full of observations and notes about the various ruins
which he visited.

In those days the railroad extended only to Canyon City, Colo.,
and from there Morgan and his party had to proceed by wagon.
One of the ruins which especially seemed to intrigue Morgan was
the one on the Animas River, which we now call Aztec. He not
only made a ground plan of the entire ruin, but noted that there
were other structures of considerable size and interest in the im-
mediate vicinity. He also entered some of the rooms, particularly
in the west wing of the larger ruin, which still had their ceilings
intact. Even at that time, evidently a good bit of the ruin had al-
ready been destroyed by the early settlers, for Morgan records the
fact that one man at Animas City, who had lived near the ruins,
told him that about one quarter of the stones had been taken away
by the settlers to use in building houses, lining wells, or for other
construction purposes. Morgan also talks about entering rooms on
the second story, so presumably some of these upper stories may
still have been intact in 1878.

In 1892, Warren K. Moorehead visited the Aztec ruins, studied
them, and in 1908, he published an article and sketch map in the
American Anthropologist. Moorehead is better known for his work
among the prehistoric mounds and temples in southeastern United
States than for investigations in the Southwest, but he was a com-
petent archeologist and keen observer of prehistoric remains. He and
his party, like other early explorers, were evidently able to enter a num-
ber of intact rooms— he says, "twenty or thirty apartments."

In 1915, Dr. N. C. Nelson, who was then curator of archeology
for the American Museum of Natural History, examined the ruins
and was impressed by their potential for further intensive investi-
gations. At this time the museum was undertaking the Archer M.
Huntington Survey of the Southwest, one of the objectives of
which was to make an intensive study of a large pueblo site.
Because of Nelson's recommendations, permission was obtained in
1916, from the owner, H. D. Abrams, to clear it of brush and

38

weeds and to make trial excavations, the expense of this undertak-
ing being borne by J. P. Morgan. As a result of these preliminary
investigations the museum decided that complete excavation and
repair of the West Ruin was desirable not only for the purpose of
procuring data on the culture of its ancient builders, but also, in
order that it might be preserved as a permanent exhibit. As a
result, the museum engaged the services of Morris, who for the
next 5 years devoted his time and attention to very careful excava-
tions of the West Ruin.

However, some 35 years before Morris undertook his excavations,
an interesting and somewhat fortuitous event occurred at the old
ruins that caused them to gain notoriety, at least locally.

By 1880 the settlers in the valley, concerned about the education
of their children, had established a small, 1-room school. Sherman
S. Howe, long a resident of the Animas area, was one of the first
boys to attend this school, and in 1947, a few years before his
death, he recorded for posterity his remembrances of the valley and
the first real exploration of the Aztec ruins. A schoolteacher
named Johnson, who hailed from Michigan and who must have
been quite a remarkable man for his day, was greatly intrigued by
the ruins. Sometime during the winter of 1881-82, he encouraged
the school children to go out with him for a day on a trip to explore
the ruins. Howe remembers the event well, for although he was
among the younger boys, he was also among the first to volunteer
to go. The following Saturday, about seven or eight of the boys
arrived at the Aztec ruins with picks, shovels, and a crowbar, to
meet with the teacher. As Howe used to tell it:

It was snowing a little and quite cold. We went into a second-story
room, more than half full of dirt, and began digging down at the cor-
ner of the room. We struck the second floor at about five feet, and
broke a hole through about two and one-half feet in diameter, but
could see nothing but a black dungeon below. There was a pro-
longed debate about the depth of it, what might be at the bottom,
and how a person could ever get back if he did go down there.
Some thought it might be full of rats, skunks, bats, or rattlesnakes.
We could imagine a hundred things. I believe the dread of ghosts
was the worst.

Howe evidently wanted to be the first one down but the teacher
felt it would be better if one of the older boys went first; so one
was selected and lowered on a rope. Naturally at the last moment
the boy was a little hesitant about being lowered into a dark hole
which, after being sealed airtight for centuries, had a "musty odor
which was not at all pleasant." Finally, however, having been
teased by his friends, he dropped down into the room. Soon the
rest of the boys were also getting down the best way they could.
As Howe described it:

39

Mummies of Aztec Ruins.

We were in a room— a clean room, with ceiling and walls, open
doorways, all just as they had been left. We were walking on floors
which had not been trodden by human feet for centuries. There was
an open door leading into the next room to the northwest. It was
also clean and in perfect condition. There was no trash on the floor,
no ashes, nor even a scrap of pottery.

Mr. Johnson seemed disappointed and puzzled. "Who were these
people who built these large buildings and such splendid rooms?
Did they not leave something behind that would give us some infor-
mation? Could they not write, to give us some description of them-
selves or a bit of history?" Such thoughts and questions as these
were racing through the mind of our teacher. He was thinking
aloud, and making us do some thinking also. I felt very nervous
and uncomfortable down in that dark, dismal place.

40

Disappointed at not finding anything in these first two rooms,
the teacher and his boys broke a hole through one of the walls
into a third room next door. This room, too, had been sealed for
many centuries, and the candles they had brought would not burn
properly until enough fresh air had circulated through the hole in
the wall. But this room held a surprise for the boys. Bit by bit,
as their candles burned better the room became brighter, and then:

When we could see across the room, there was a human skeleton fac-
ing us with its back to the wall. It had been placed there with no
wrappings around it whatever. It was not mummified, but the liga-
ments had dried, holding the bones in place except that the head had
tilted back and was resting against the wall. There was some dried
skin and hair lying around it. The body had been flexed in the
usual manner, but instead of wrapping and tying in the matting, as
the custom was, it seemed to have been just placed there nude. We
all stood motionless, nobody saying a word. It must be that we were
struck dumb with awe, and that we were debating in our minds
whether to stand our ground or retreat.

This was as much as the boys and the teacher could do in the
short time they had the first day out at the ruins, but they all
agreed that they would meet again the following Saturday and con-
tinue their explorations. However, during the week the boys had
told their parents about what they were doing, and the next Sat-
urday when Howe showed up there was a crowd of older men
present who quickly began to break into a number of other rooms.
Howe remembers entering one room with them:

We entered the room through the hole in the floor and passed
through the open doorway into the northwest room. We broke a
hole through the wall and entered the room to the northeast, and
there we really did see things! I got into that room and stood, try-
ing my best to take it all in and see everything I could, while that
excited crowd were rummaging it, scattering and turning everything
into a mess. There were thirteen skeletons ranging from infants to
adults. The infants were two in number. The skulls had not knit
together. One of them had two teeth. All were wrapped in matting
similar to that around tea chests that come from China, and tied with
strings made from fiber of the yucca plant. There were large pieces
of cotton cloth. Most of it was plain, resembling our ten-ounce
duck. It was in good state of preservation except that it was some-
what colored wih age. Some of the cloth had a colored (red) design
in stripes. There was also some feather cloth, and several pieces of
matting of various types. There were several baskets, some of the
best that I have ever seen, all well preserved. There were a lot of
sandals, some very good, others showing considerable wear. There
was a large quantity of pottery, all Mesa Verde. Some of the pot-
tery was very pretty and new looking.

There were a great many beads and ornaments. I cannot give a de-
scription of these, as I had no opportunity to examine them closely.
I remember seeing quite a lot of turquoise. There were a number of
stone axes, polished, and much nicer in appearance than the average

41

Mkiiir ' f|

JPWew j#a» sandals.

Probable snowshoe made of willow, reeds,
and yucca fibers. Length 20" .

type found in this vicinity. There were also skinning knives, so-
called, and sandal lasts; cushions or rings they wore on their heads
for carrying burdens— some made of yucca, nicely woven or braided;
some made very plain, in coils of yucca strips, tied in various places
to hold the strips together; some were made of juniper bark wrapped
with strings, and some were made of corn husks. These may have
been used also as jar rests to support vessels with convex bottoms
which would not stand upright very well without some kind of
support.

Obviously, findings such as these could not long remain a secret,
and for a considerable time it was a favorite weekend sport to hunt
for old remains at this ruin and others in the immediate vicinity.
A great quantity of invaluable archeological material must have
been carried away in this manner and has long since been lost or
scattered among private individuals. A little of it got into museum
collections, but most of it was carried off by the people who found
it and who then left it in obscure corners of their nouses until it
was broken or lost. As Howe himself said in his later days when
he remembered these early findings:

When we had finished this work, the stuff was taken out and carried
off by different members of the party, but where is it now? Nobody
knows. Like most of the material from the smaller pueblos around
the larger buildings, it is gone. I, being only a small kid, did not
get my choice of artifacts, I had to take what was left, which made a
nice little collection, at that. But it, too, is about all gone.

We went on with our work, opening all of the rooms that visitors

42

now pass through with the guides, but we found nothing more. The
holes that we made through the walls have been converted into door-
ways through which all visitors now pass from room to room.

For a number of years, rather indiscriminate looting by pot-
hunters and others interested in these antiquities continued spo-
radically. Luckily, the pothunters did not get into the rooms which
seemed to require a lot of hard work and digging, but merely
broke into those rooms which were still more or less intact and
in which readily accessible material was lying around on the floor
or scattered through the debris.

In 1889, a patent covering the site of the Aztec ruins was issued
to John R. Kuntz and continued in his possession until 1907,
when it was transferred to H. D. Abrams. Due largely to the
efforts of these gentlemen, the ruins were relatively protected
against vandalism until it could be scientifically investigated by
Morris in 1916.

The name of Earl H. Morris is well known in Southwestern
archeology. Although he also did considerable archeological work
in Central America, particularly at the Temple of the Warriors at
Chichen Itza in Yucatan, trying to unravel the story of the pre-
historic inhabitants of the American Southwest was always his first
love. Morris was born on October 24, 1889, in Chama, N. Mex.
His family had originally come west from the Pennsylvania oil
fields in the mid-1870's, and his father engaged in construction
work such as building railway grades and roads, digging canals,
and hauling freight. In 1891, the elder Morris moved his family
to Farmington, N. Mex. There, he was able to rent out his teams
on a canal construction project. This left him free to pursue his
hobby— digging for Indian antiquities— the love of which he was
able to impart to his son Earl.

When Earl was 3!/2 years old he actually excavated his first
Indian pot. As he used to tell it:

One morning in March of 1893, Father handed me a worn-out pick,
the handle of which he had shortened to my length, and said: "Go
dig in that hole where I worked yesterday, and you will be out of
my way." At my first stroke there rolled down a roundish, gray
object that looked like a cobblestone, but when I turned it over, it
proved to be the bowl of a black-on-white dipper. I ran to show it
to my mother. She grabbed the kitchen butcher knife and hastened
to the pit to uncover the skeleton with which it had been buried.
Thus, at three and a half years of age there had happened the clinching
event that was to make of me an ardent pot hunter, who later on
was to acquire the more creditable, and I hope earned, classification as
an archaeologist.

Morris' father was killed when he was 15, and he had to go to
work to support his mother and to put himself through school
and college as well. In 1908, he entered the University of Colorado,

43

W'

Ifcf

I

TA<? £^r/ Morm Ao«^ about 1933; today the Aztec Ruins Visitor Center.

but he left temporarily to join an archeological expedition to the
Maya country of Guatemala. Later he returned to college and re-
ceived his B.A. in 1914 and his M.A. in 1916.

Having spent the winter of 1915 in New York City at Colum-
bia University, Morris was well acquainted with the leading arche-
ologists at the American Museum of Natural History. It was,
therefore, upon Dr. Nelson's recommendation that the ruins at
Aztec would make an excellent subject for intensive study by the
museum, that Morris was hired to conduct the investigations. He
was in charge of the Aztec excavations from 1916-21, and sporad-
ically through 1923, at which time the area became a National
Monument. Morris was the first custodian, as they were called in
those days, and was officially appointed on February 8, 1923, at the
salary of $12 per annum.

He not only excavated the major part of the West Ruin very
carefully, but also stabilized and repaired the walls as he went
along, for the museum greatly desired that this ruin might be pre-
served as an outstanding monument. Later, in 1933-34, Morris'
services were loaned to the National Park Service by the Carnegie
Institution so that he might accurately restore and reroof the Great
Kiva at Aztec.

44

Morris dug in a number of other places throughout the South-
west in addition to Aztec and therefore was in a better position
than any other man of his time to interpret and explain the devel-
opment of the prehistoric cultures in the Four Corners country. He
produced a number of valuable archeological reports, most of them
under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution for which he worked
for many years. With his death in 1956, Southwestern archeology
suffered a severe loss, for there are not many scientific investigators
with both his skill and motivation. As his lifelong friend A. V.
Kidder has said about him:

Throughout his career, Morris was doubly motivated. First, of course,
by the urge to trace the course and discern the causes of historical
events and cultural developments. Secondly, by an exceptionally
ardent wish to make evident to the world of today the achievements
of the past. Back of this was his own admiration for and striving to
preserve all ancient things that were beautifully and soundly made. I
think he may also have felt, perhaps subconsciously, an obligation to
repay, by rescuing their work from oblivion, the men and women of
long ago whose artistry and manual skills gave him such keen and
lasting pleasure.

Digging in ruins such as at Aztec, where a dry climate has
helped preserve many perishable items normally lost to archeologists
and where there was always the opportunity of suddenly discover-
ing a fairly complete and undisturbed room, must have been a
stimulating experience to a man of Morris' capabilities. One has
only to browse through his reports and articles, or -to glance at the

Mesa Verde-style pottery mugs. Left mug: Diameter at bulge, 4V3"; Diameter at
mouth, 3"; Height, 4 V4" ■ Right mug: Diameter at bulge, 41/3" ; Diameter at mouth,
3" ; Height, 4lM" .

45'

pictures therein, to get the feeling of intense excitement about each
discovery that prevailed throughout the 5 years he was digging
there. It would be impossible to describe everything that Morris
excavated, but several of the burials that he uncovered were of
exceptional interest.

One consists of what may be the only known case of prehistoric
Pueblo surgery. In one of the rooms Morris found the remains of
a young female 17 to 20 years of age accompanied by several bowls
and a pottery mug. The body had been wrapped in an excellently
woven cotton cloth, which in turn, had been covered by a mantle
of feather cloth and finally, with a mat of plaited rushes. The
young lady had been seriously injured, perhaps in a fall, for the
hip had been severely fractured, several vertebrae cracked, and both
bones of the left forearm badly broken. But what was of particu-
lar interest, was that an attempt had been made to treat the broken
arm. Six wooden splints, each flat on one side and convex on the
other, had been bound in longitudinal position around the arm.
As Morris said, if the Indians who attempted to help this girl
realized that her pelvis was also broken they were unable to do
anything about that, but evidently they had attempted to set the
arm and return it to normal. Unfortunately, death occurred before
sufficient time had elapsed to permit the healing to begin, so we
do not know how successful this sort of treatment might have
been. Although the surgery may seem crude and bungling to us,

Pottery ladles from Aztec Ruins. Left ladle: Diameter of bowl, 41U" ; Handle length,
12V2"; Height, 2^4" . Right ladle: Diameter of bowl, 5"; Handle length, 6%" ';
Height, 2l/2 ".

46

Full-grooved ax with fragment of
hafting material. Length, 7" ; Maxi-
mum width, 3V2" ; Width at groove,
23/4".

at least it shows an awareness of what was wrong and an attempt
to correct it.

Another fascinating burial was the one which Morris referred to
as the "warrior's grave", in which he found an adult male buried
in a grave-pit sunk into the floor of a room. A wrapping of
feather cloth enveloped the entire body, and there had been an
equally extensive outer covering of rush matting. Along with
numerous other grave offerings of artifacts and pottery vessels, a
large, ornate shield was laid over the body. It consisted of a flat
piece of coiled basketry 36 inches long and 31 inches wide, and on
one side was lashed a hardwood handle. The outermost 5 coils of
the shield had been coated with pitch and thickly spangled with
minute flakes of selenite; the next 5 were stained dark red, while
the remaining 48 were greenish-blue. In addition to the shield
there were axes of a form intermediate between axes and hammers,
so that it would appear they were intended for use as weapons
rather than tools. One is beautifully fashioned from a piece of
hematite or similar iron ore, and both had wooden handles which
lay near the right hand of the body. Near the left hand was a
long knife of red quartzite, positioned so that it might have been
inserted in a belt or girdle. Also beside the body was a long, thin,
tapering wooden object which might have been interpreted as a dig-
ging stick but which Morris felt would also have been serviceable
as a sword.

It is not often an archeologist has an opportunity to uncover
spectacular remains of this sort, but these are only two of the fas-
cinating burials which Morris recovered from the Aztec ruins. In
all he found 186 interments. Strangely enough, only 6, with pos-
sibly 2 others, could be identified as belonging to the Chacoan
phase at Aztec; 149 were definitely of the Mesa Verde period, 12
others probably so, and 17 were found in circumstances which
made it impossible to tell to which period they belonged.

But burials were not the only things which Morris uncovered.
He began his diggings in the southeast corner of the ruin, exca-
vating the entire east wing from south to north. The problem of

47

moving the dirt, debris, and fallen rocks was considerable, especially
when he did not want merely to pile it off to one side where he
might subsequently have to move it a second time. Furthermore,
the ruin was to be stabilized as a permanent monument, so it was
necessary to remove the debris well outside the ruin area. At one
time he evidently considered building a sluiceway from an irriga-
tion ditch which runs along a higher level on the north side of
the ruin, thinking that most of the debris could be dumped in the
sluice box and washed out to a lower area by the river. Perhaps
this scheme did not prove to be feasible, for instead, during the
first season's excavations, he constructed a narrow-gage tramway on
which the workmen ran dump cars. Unfortunately, this method of
dirt removal did not work satisfactorily either, because the relatively
light rails which were used would not support the weight of the
loaded dump trucks. He also had difficulty with the size and
quality of the wheels on the dumpcarts. Although excavators else-
where have sometimes used this method of removing dirt, it fre-
quently presents its own type of engineering problems. In the re-
maining years of the work at Aztec, Morris employed horse-drawn
carts which could be loaded directly from the excavations and
hauled to a vacant area to be dumped.

In many places the digging was extremely laborious, for over the
centuries the dirt and debris had been packed into a consistency
almost like that of concrete. In other places the rooms were full
of all sorts of prehistoric rubbish, intermixed with broken artifacts

Early "diggings" at Aztec Ruins.

48

which had to be carefully sorted out. In describing the excavations
in one room Morris said:

The ceiling failed in the most unusual way, the supports having been
broken first at the center, then at each end, where they entered the
wall. The small poles seemed to have parted from the walls almost
as soon as the center timbers gave way. Some were standing upright
against the end walls, while the majority were mashed back against
and along the east wall. The splints, bark, and adobe were in a
grievous tangle, most difficult to excavate. Above the first ceiling
were decayed, but unburned, timbers and lumps of charcoal and red-
dened earth representing, respectively, the second and third ceilings.

Morris completely excavated the east wing and the eastern half
of the north wing. In addition he also excavated 29 rooms in the
west wing and about two-thirds of the small cobblestone 1-story
rooms which close off the southern third of the plaza area.

Besides excavating many of the kivas enclosed within the pueblo
rooms, Morris also excavated the large Chaco-like kiva in front of
the northeast corner, as well as the Great Kiva which is centrally
located on the south side of the plaza. Later, in 1933 and 1934,
Morris returned to Aztec and supervised the stabilization and recon-
struction of this Great Kiva, so that today you see it as it sup-
posedly existed when the Indians used it for ceremonial purposes.

Exterior of the reconstructed Great Kiva.

49

Immediately to the west of the main ruin, where the brush had
been cleared, Morris found a rather extensive low mound area.
The surface was an orderless succession of hummocks and depressions,
the former thickly strewn with cobblestones, the whole presenting an
appearance characteristic of most of the ruins in this end of the valley.

Thinking these might be the remains of an earlier structure, he
excavated most of it. To his surprise, the reverse proved to be
true. Although there had undoubtedly been an earlier Chaco-like
sandstone structure at this point, most of it had been torn down
and the debris carried elsewhere or utilized in building the great
ruin itself. Morris said:

Overlying the earliest remains there are deposits of clean earth, some
of it presumably laid down by the elements, but the bulk of it is ex-
cavated earth intentionally dumped where it lies.

At some later date, the Mesa Verde-like people had built cobble-
stone houses, pit rooms, and small kivas on top of this earlier
debris. Today the outline of some of these cobblestone walls can
be seen on the ground just to the left of the visitor trail as it
proceeds northward to enter the main part of the West Ruin.

Since Morris' excavations at Aztec, there has been sporadic digging,
much of it in connection with the Service's ruins stabilization pro-
gram. To prevent soil moisture from seeping into the lower foot-
ings of these ancient walls, it is frequently necessary to dig down
to their bases and cap them with concrete or preserve them by
other suitable methods. In doing so, old refuse pits, broken frag-
ments of pottery, or even a burial is occasionally turned up.

Recently, in making excavations in which to place dry barrels for
drainage purposes in two rooms on the east side, two interesting
ovenlike structures, each exactly centered in a room, were acciden-
tally found. Their location in adjoining rooms, and their central
position in the rooms, precludes the possibility that they were pit
ovens from an earlier period before the pueblo was built. Doubt-
less they had been placed deliberately in these two rooms, and they
may have been used for roasting large quantities of corn or pre-
paring certain types of baked cornmeal or cornbread.

Also since Morris' time, the rooms through which you may now
pass, and which lie between the plaza proper and the rooms with
the intact ceilings, have been partially excavated in order to allow
you easier access to the plaza. Finally, as part of the stabilization
program, the remaining rooms in the south wing which enclosed
the plaza, and which were largely composed of cobblestones, were
cleared and stabilized.

Morris also excavated a few rooms in the East Ruin simply as a
test to see if it belonged to the same general period as the larger
ruin in the west. From his findings there he felt that the East
Ruin was erected during the Mesa Verde phase of Aztec.
50

In recent years, one other major excavation has been undertaken
at Aztec. This was the complete clearing and stabilization of the
circular structure to the north of the ruin known as the Hubbard
Mound— a massive, circular, triple- walled structure, with underlying
scattered remains of earlier structures. Two heavy radial cobble-
stone walls now extend to the south of the main structure, and
excavations revealed remnants of other heavy walls disappearing
under the road to the west. This indicates that the building had
originally been one corner of a group of structures. The main part
of the Hubbard Mound consists of three concentric circular walls;
the spaces between the outer two rings are partitioned into rooms.
There are 8 rooms in the inner circle, including an entrance room
on the south, and 14 in the outer, if you again count an open pas-
sageway on the south side.

Interestingly enough, the three circular walls are heavier and
extend deeper into the underlying sand than do the partition walls,
and therefore were constructed first as continuous circles. Within
the innermost circle there is a standard, small- type kiva. Evidently
the entire structure represents a building for the use of a highly
specialized religious organization. Part of the construction is of
sandstone blocks, part is cobblestone, and all of it seems to have
been generously plastered with adobe mud.

There are other examples of tri-walled structures in the South-
west, but they are not very numerous and the exact uses to which
they might have been put are unknown. An analysis of materials
found during the excavation of the Hubbard Mound reveals that
it belonged to the Mesa Verde phase.

When Morris first undertook the excavations at Aztec it was his
intention, and that of the American Museum of Natural History,
to excavate the ruins completely. However, the undertaking was a
massive one. World War I intervened, with all its uncertainties,
and funds frequently ran short. In the later days of the excava-
tions, Morris realized there was an advantage to leaving parts of
any ruin unexcavated so that better archeological techniques in the
future might extract information of which he was unaware. At
present, the National Park Service feels much the same way. Perhaps
25 or 50 years from now further excavations may be undertaken in
this area, but for the present, the ruins will be left as they are, com-
plete with their feeling of mystery.

The Aztec Ruins Today

Aztec Ruins National Monument consists of an enclosed area of
27 acres containing six major archeological complexes of rooms and
structures, and at least seven or eight smaller mounds which may

51

' ''*SA ^~-rf.J- **H

»t^^*#>

Nfc^.t!^r^

^fJ*^S Hfe *~

&**,

/lz/cc R#/'«$ during excavations of the 1920' s.

contain structures or may simply be trash and refuse mounds from
the larger occupation zones. Two of these major complexes have
been excavated: the West Ruin and the Hubbard Mound. Two of
the others— the East Ruin and Mound F— have been tested.
Mound F is evidently very similar to the Hubbard Mound.

The East Ruin, if excavated, might be similar in most respects
to the West Ruin, both in appearance and time of occupation. As
to whether the smaller mounds contain trash or house remains,
only thorough archeological investigations can tell. Morris' dig-
gings and subsequent small tests have indicated there may be earlier
(Developmental Pueblo) remains underlying the main prehis-
toric complexes. Also, such remains might still be found under
the windblown sand in the flatter areas between the major ruins.
No real archeological work has ever been done in the monument
area to determine the possible extent of such earlier remains.

The two main sites seen by the visitor to the monument are,
therefore, the West Ruin and the Hubbard Mound. The West
Ruin was the one first entered by early settlers in the late 19th
century. The profuse remains caused extensive digging and looting
for about a decade. Then, under the ownership first of John R.
Kuntz and later of H. D. Abrams, the area was given a certain
amount of protection. During 1916-21, the American Museum of
Natural History excavated extensively in the West Ruin under the
guidance of Morris. Today, three-fourths of this ruin has been
excavated, cleared, and stabilized so that you may gain a firsthand
impression of its original appearance. The remaining one-fourth
is largely unexcavated and, for all anyone knows, may contain
archeological riches equal to any recovered in the early days or dur-
ing the excavations by the American Museum of Natural History.

Although some of the rooms and walls seen by the first white
settlers in the valley have now collapsed, evidence of at least three
stories is still clearly visible in several places in the ruin. The
main part consists of three sides of a rectangle with a slightly
bowing outer wall on the fourth side, composed of single rooms,
which seals off the central plaza. The only entrance into the
pueblo was the one along the path by which visitors enter the
ruin today.

52

The pueblo was built of yellowish-brown and tan sandstone
blocks, most of them shaped into rectangles by pecking or grind-
ing. To support the weight of the upper rooms, the lower walls
are much thicker and are composed of rubble fill with an outer
veneer wall cf the better shaped rectangular blocks. In many places,
the spaces between them are filled with small chinking stones set
in adobe mud. Sometimes broken pieces of pottery vessels were
used for spalls. Originally, the walls were plastered with layers of
adobe, most of which, unfortunately, have eroded away.

One unusual feature in the West Ruin consists of two very fine
bands of green sandstone blocks which extend horizontally along
the west outer wall of the pueblo and into a few of the interior

Section of wall at Aztec Ruins showing a band of green sandstone.

53

rooms of the southwest corner. There are indications in a few
places that originally there may have been three such parallel bands.

The north and northwest sides of the ruin contain the most ex-
tensive building remains. The highest walls and best construction
still exist there, and one can see evidence of at least three stories.
Also in the north portion, along the extreme back row of rooms
at the ground level, there is a series of seven rooms, each of which
has its original ceiling intact. These seven were the first entered
by early relic hunters, who found most of the original doorways
to the south sealed up and who broke through the walls of each
room in an easterly direction. These breaches in the walls have
been repaired but left open, so that today you can go from one
room to the next along the path taken by the early explorers
rather than through the doorways used by the Indians.

From the plaza, the Indians gained access to these northwestern
rooms by entering the west side rooms. Then, turning at right
angles, they proceeded northward through the doorways and rooms
until they reached the final row of rooms at the north.

Although not all are open to the public because of their diffi-
culty of access, there are 19 rooms in the ruin which still have
their original ceilings intact. In making a ceiling, the Indians used
two or more main stringers— that is, large beams of pine or
juniper— which they set into the walls of the room at a height of
8 or 9 feet, traversing the shorter dimension of the room. Run-
ning at right angles to the stringers, they placed cottonwood poles
or splints of juniper, and, over these, reeds, rushes, or woven mat-
ting. Upon this they put adobe mud which was well packed to
make a firm roof, or, if there was to be another room above it, a
stout floor.

Since the entire ruin has not been excavated, it is possible there
may be more rooms with ceilings intact, or others in which,
although the ceilings have collapsed, the first-floor walls and part
of the second remain. As far as we can tell from the excavated
rooms and from the surface evidence, there are 221 first-story
rooms. There are intact portions of 119 second-story rooms and at
least 12 third-story rooms. When originally inhabited, there were
many more than the 352 rooms that we can count today. Generally,
access from one room to another was by doorways that led from the
back or side portions of the pueblo out toward the central plaza.
However, several rooms also had lateral doorways, many of which had
at one time been sealed up, either by the first inhabitants or by
the second group. When burials were made in a room, it must
have been necessary to seal all the doorways, unless the bodies
were placed in subfloor pits or covered with dirt or debris.

Among the second-story rooms in the northeastern section are
four special doorways, each placed in the corner of a room so that

54

Section of wall at Aztec Ruins showing sealed door at left.

it connects with the adjoining diagonal room. As far as we know,
corner doorways occur only in second-story rooms, with the pos-
sible exception of the double doorway mentioned below. One cor-
ner doorway leads into a room that had four normal doorways,
one in each side. We do not know if this room had a special
function, but it was the most accessible in the entire pueblo.

One corner doorway is possibly unique in the entire Southwest;
beneath it is a second and much smaller one which led from the
second-floor level into a first-floor room which could be entered
only by this means. Although there is a step arrangement in this
lower doorway, it is so small and its roof is so low that it must
have been a matter of crawling rather than walking through it.
This doorway enters the lower room so high in the wall that it
would also have been necessary to have a ladder inside the room
to enter or leave it.

In addition to doorways, many rooms, especially toward the back
or sides of the pueblo and in the lower tiers, had one or two
openings about a foot square, high in the back wall. These are

55

Cross section and photograph of an
over-under corner doorway.

MASONRY WALLS

':'"""■'•'■'] EARTH FLOOR orFILL
O I z

APPROX. SCALE IN FEET

56

above the height of an average man even today, and could not
have served as view holes or windows for the Indians. They must
have been put there for ventilation.

There are a few other openings in some walls which are not as
large as the average doorway or as small as the ventilators. Usu-
ally these are placed at a medium height in the room and could
well have served as windows to allow a view from one room to an-
other. None of these so-called windows, however, opens to the
rear or sides of the pueblo, nor is any known that opens onto the
plaza in front.

Not counting the Great Kiva, which bulks so large in the plaza,
excavations have revealed at least 29 other kivas or ceremonial
chambers. Several, especially in the southeast corner, underlie the
main structure and may represent kivas from the earlier or Devel-
opmental Pueblo Period. Besides the cluster of small kivas around
the southeastern corner, there is a second grouping of larger kivas
among the rooms in the northeast corner and out into the north-
eastern part of the plaza, where a rather large Chaco-type kiva is
located. A third cluster, composed of smaller Mesa Verde-type
keyhole kivas, is located near the southwestern corner of the
pueblo, and Morris found scattered remains of one or two other
kivas toward the front of the southwestern part.

The Great Kiva, or House of the Great Kiva as Morris called
it, is centrally located in the south side of the plaza. It is essen-
tially circular in form and has two distinct parts. The inner part—
the kiva proper— has a floor about 8 feet below the surface. At
ground level, and surrounding this inner section, is an outer circle
of 14 arc-shaped rooms. Twelve of these are essentially similar,
but the other two are markedly different. One is merely an open
passage about 3V£ feet wide which leads directly from the plaza to
the head of the south stairway. The other is a large rectangular
alcovelike structure on the north side of the kiva proper, with a
stairway leading up into it from the kiva floor. On the north and
west sides of this alcove, there is a low benchlike structure around
the inner wall, and on the south side are what appear to be a
piece of a wall and two rectangular masonry blocks. Toward the
center back portion of the alcove is another low square masonry
structure which may have been an altar. When excavated, this
latter structure had burned poles embedded in the north side as
though it once had a small roof or some kind of entablature over it.

The kiva proper is 41 feet 3!/2 inches wide at floor level and 48
feet 3V2 inches wide at a height of 3 feet above the floor. This
difference is caused by two benches or concentric rings which com-
pletely encircle the kiva base. At the north end three masonry
steps led to the second bench, which at this point formed a fourth
step in the stairway leading to the alcove. Above this, another

57

SCHEMATIC PLAN OF THE GREAT
DURING CHACO TIMES

KIVA

xo

1

APPRO*. 5CALE IN FEET

masonry step was surmounted by five sets of double juniper logs
set in the sides of a recess, with an average rise of 9 Vi inches each.
These logs formed the final steps leading from the kiva floor into
the north alcove.

58

Originally there had also been a stairway on the south side,
leading to the small exit at that point. Some time while the kiva
was in use, these stairs had been eliminated, the two benches had
been filled in smoothly at that point, and the recess above had
been partially closed. The modern wooden stairways at both these
points have been placed there by the National Park Service for the
convenience of visitors.

On the floor of the kiva are remains of the central altar or fire-
pit, flanked on either side by two large rectangular stone-lined pits,
the bottoms of which are well below the kiva floor. These pits,
often referred to as foot drums, may have served at other times as
hiding places for the shamans, or medicine men, who performed
magical rites during ceremonies.

Surrounding the kiva at ground level are 12 similar arc-shaped
chambers of varying dimensions, which represent components of the
building as last used. Some time during one or another of the
several alterations made by the Indians on the Great Kiva, every
door from the plaza into these peripheral chambers was sealed with
masonry. The floor of the rooms was adobe, without much sign
of use, and the quantity of gypsum found by Morris indicates they
may have been painted white.

Once the outer doors were sealed, entrance was doubtless by way
of the niched vertical stairways in front of each room. About 10

Reconstructed interior of the Great Kiva.

inches from the top bench, in front of most of the alcove rooms,
Morris found a slot 8V5 inches wide and 8 inches deep which con-
tinued to the top of the wall. About a foot apart in each niche,
were two round juniper sticks, laid side by side with their ends ex-
tending into the masonry. On the east side of the kiva, the
veneer facing of the wall had fallen, and it could not be positively
determined if these alcove rooms also had similar slot stairways in
front of them. If they did not, the rooms would have been non-
functional in connection with the kiva proper, and therefore the
present-day restoration shows them correctly.

That the Great Kiva was originally roofed was determined by
Morris' finding the remains of four rectangular columns, counter-
sunk below the level of the kiva floor and composed of alternating
courses of masonry and wooden poles. Each course of wooden poles
was laid at right angles to the alternating one below. Each column
was supported by three thick circular sandstone blocks, evidently to
prevent the weight of the columns, and the roof they supported,
from pressing them down into the soft ground or spreading out
the footings. In the excavation of the kiva fill Morris also found
many pieces of charred timbers, so that although we do not know
the exact method of roofing the kiva, one method which the In-
dians could have used has been duplicated in the modern recon-
struction. Evidently the kiva burned and was then abandoned.

Just to the northwest of the main ruin at Aztec is a small tri-
walled ceremonial structure known as the Hubbard Site. Sixty-four
feet in diameter, it consists of three concentric walls of stone and
adobe, with a small 24-foot circular kiva enclosed in the center.
This kiva is not directly connected with any of the tri- walls; there
is a space 1 V2 feet wide between the outer shell of the kiva and
the inner side of the nearest wall. There are remains of eight roof
pilasters, a central fireplace, a deflector, and a ventilator shaft in
the kiva. On the south side are openings in the two outer walls,
one directly behind the other, so that access could have been along
this passage and then up over the roof of the kiva and down into
it through the smoke hole. None of the rooms in the outer two
circles connect in any way with the kiva.

There are seven rooms of roughly equal size within the inner
circle; an eighth "room" might be the one mentioned above, which
forms part of the passage leading out to the south. These rooms
do not connect with each other, and access to each of them must
have been through the roof.

In the outermost circle there are 13 rooms, with another constitut-
ing the outer portion of the south passage. This is the same number
of alcoves as surrounded the Great Kiva, except that in the latter
case two were entranceways. Here in the Hubbard Mound there
is no north alcove entranceway as there is in the Great Kiva.

60

In the outer circle of rooms, the first four east of the south en-
trance opened into each other through a lateral doorway, and the
next two rooms around to the northeast also opened into each other.
The following room toward the north was self-contained. Pro-
ceeding around to the west, the next five rooms all opened on
each other through lateral doorways. Finally, on the southwest
there is a single room not connected to any other. None of the
rooms in the outer circle opened onto any in the inner circle or
to the outside, except for one doorway on the west which led to
the series of five interconnecting rooms. The separate rooms and
the other series of connecting rooms must have been entered through
the roof.

Extending southward from the tri-wall structure are two massive
parallel walls made of cobblestones laid in thick mortar, and two
more equally massive walls extend westward from these. There
are scattered smaller walls, also of cobblestones; while we do not
know their original dimensions, they suggest rectangular enclosures
which may have contained house rooms of lighter construction.

The ruins contained within the Aztec Ruins National Monument
constitute a complex of prehistoric remains representative of several
different construction periods. Different groups of Indians seemed
to have been involved at various times, and only further excavation
will fully clarify their relationships.

The Natural Scene

Aztec Ruins National Monument is located on the Animas River
in northwestern New Mexico, about 20 miles below the Colorado
State line and 14 miles above the point where the Animas flows
into the San Juan. The monument is on the west bank of the
Animas on high ground about halfway between the river and the
low-lying hills and mesas which border the river valley.

The valley, although narrow at spots, is about 2 miles wide at
the point where the ruins are located. The floor of the valley is
composed of fertile alluvial soil, which produces fine crops if ir-
rigated. Today, as in prehistoric times, the population of this area
is concentrated along the river. It was this permanent source of
water that induced the builders of the Aztec pueblo, and in later
times the white man, to settle this valley. No doubt many of the
fields cultivated today are the same ones that were tilled by the
original inhabitants of the area.

The valley floor and valley terraces are dotted with saltbush, rab-
bitbrush, greasewood, and sagebrush. The riverbanks and ditches
are lined with willows and huge cottonwoods. Cattails and reeds
grow in the marshy areas, and wild roses grow in the shady spots.

61

The low hills and uplands bordering the river valley have a sparse
cover of vegetation because of the small amount of rainfall. There-
fore the main growth is juniper and pinyon. Typical of the Upper
Sonoran Life Zone, these small, hardy trees can withstand dry periods
and survive in semiarid country.

Today much of the valley is under cultivation or in pasture, and
the mild and very dry climate is well suited to growing non-citrus
fruit. Elevation at the monument is about 5,600 feet above sea
level. Average annual rainfall is about 9V5 inches; the humidity is
usually very low. Temperatures will reach the mid-90's during July
and August, but evenings are cool and pleasant. Night tempera-
tures in the 60's are not uncommon even after the hottest summer
days. Occasional afternoon thundershowers give relief from the
heat during late July and August.

Spring and autumn are relatively dry seasons when the skies may

Skunk.

m

4

62

■«;-

F. '.■:.-.-.:

remain cloudless tunc In >rr:ember a great range

of temperature from night . — much a 5 45° — is noticeable

The winters are mild. The temperature rarely drops to zero or
below, and the:;

Infrequent snows arc usually lighi d melt quickly. Many -
are warm and cloudless

A: the time that the A
deer, pronghorn ("antelope"' . and bighorn could be r^und in and

lev. Occasi
rivet to the north c c Ruins imals

which wete fam the pc the Aztec pueblo are still

cnt in the vallej served in the monu-

ment. Jadoabbits, cottontails dk squ

an e. all ofwhic c probab. the

Pueblo people, frequent the monumc s quail and pheas-

-

Bobcat.

ants, which are both relative newcomers, may also be seen in the
monument. Ducks, geese, and a few large shore birds may be seen
along the river during the cooler months. Meadowlarks, robins,
and numerous other birds may be seen during warmer months.

Several species of lizards and a few bullsnakes (which are harm-
less and beneficial and should not be disturbed) may be observed
around the ruins area during summer.

Establishment and Administration

Aztec Ruins National Monument was established by Presidential
proclamation on January 24, 1923. Most of the land was donated
to the Government by the American Museum of Natural History
in 1921, 1928, and 1930. In 1931 an additional 6.8 acres was pur-
chased by the Federal Government from the heirs of H. D. Abrams
who had originally owned the entire site. And in 1947, the South-
western Monuments Association purchased the 1.2 acres containing
the Hubbard Mound and presented it to the Government. The
monument, now containing 27.1 acres, is administered by the Na-
tional Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Created in 1849, the Department of the Interior— America's De-
partment of Natural Resources— is concerned with the management,
conservation, and development of the Nation's water, wildlife,

64

mineral, forest, and park and recreational resources. It also has
major responsibilities for Indian and Territorial affairs.

As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department
works to assure that nonrenewable resources are developed and used
wisely, that park and recreational resources are conserved for the
future, and that renewable resources make their full contribution to
the progress, prosperity, and security of the United States— now
and in the future.

A superintendent, whose address is Rt. 1, Box 101, Aztec, N. Mex.,
is in immediate charge of Aztec Ruins National Monument.

The visitor center at Aztec Ruins.

65

Related Areas

Other monuments in the National Park System also preserve the
remains of different types of prehistoric ruins. Two of these, Mesa
Verde National Park, Colo., and Chaco Canyon National Monu-
ment, N. Mex., contain remains of Indian groups which seem to
have been related to those at Aztec Ruins National Monument. A
third, Bandelier National Monument, N. Mex., contains remains of
another type but still may be one of the areas in the Rio Grande
drainage in which some of the Indians lived after they abandoned
the San Juan region.

Suggested Readings

Howe, Sherman S. My Story of the Aztec Ruins, The Basin Spokesman,
Farmington, N. Mex., 1955.

Morris, E. H. The Aztec Ruin. Anthropological Papers of the
American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXVI, Part I, New
York, N.Y., 1919.

The House of the Great Kiva at the Aztec Ruin. Anthropological

Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXVI,
Part II, New York, N.Y., 1921.

Burials in the Aztec Ruin; The Aztec Ruin Annex. Anthropo-
logical Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol.
XXVI, Parts III and IV, New York, N.Y., 1924.

Notes on Excavations in the Aztec Ruin. Anthropological Papers

of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXVI, Part
V, New York, N.Y., 1928.

Reed, E. K. The Distinctive Features and Distribution of the San Juan
Anazazi Culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 2,
No. 3, Albuquerque, N. Mex., 1946.

Vivian, R. G. The Hubbard Site and Other Tri-walled Structures in New
Mexico and Colorado. Archeological Research Series Number 3, Na-
tional Park Service, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C,
1959.

Wheat, J. B. Prehistoric People of the Northern Southwest. Grand
Canyon Natural History Association, Bulletin Number 12, Grand
Canyon, Ariz., 1955.

Wormington, H. M. Ancient Man in North America. Denver
Museum of Natural History, Popular Series No. 4, Fourth Edi-
tion, Fully Revised, Denver, Colo., 1957.

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1963 OF — 665208

66

NATIONAL PARK SEJ

3 1604 0CW829 4ST
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES '

(PRICE LISTS OF NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PUBLICATIONS SOLD BY THE GOVERNMENT
PRINTING OFFICE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS,
WASHINGTON 25, D.C.)

Antietam

Aztec Ruins

Bandelier

Chalmette

Chickamauga and Chattanooga Battlefields

Custer Battlefield

Custis-Lee Mansion, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

Fort Laramie

Fort McHenry

Fort Necessity

Fort Pulaski

Fort Raleigh

Fort Sumter

Fort Union

George Washington Birthplace

Gettysburg

Guilford Courthouse

Hopewell Village

Independence

Jamestown, Virginia

Kings Mountain

The Lincoln Museum and the House Where Lincoln Died

Manassas (Bull Run)

Montezuma Castle

Morristown, a Military Capital of the Revolution

Ocmulgee

Petersburg Battlefields

Richmond Battlefields

Saratoga

Scotts Bluff

Shiloh

Statue of Liberty

Vanderbilt Mansion

Vicksburg

Wright Brothers

Yorktown